3rd War Series Episode 2: Transformations part 2
by Lady Starscream
Summary: Part two of the introduction fic for the series. Things begin to come together, and Bullet and Jade try to do their best impression of Megatron and Starscream in order to rescue a teammate on Cybertron. partially OC centric.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: This was inspired by the NaNoWriMo challenge. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near 50,000 words. LOL. Oh well. At least I finally got myself to write this. I've been procrastinating on it since... well, a few _years_. eheheh.

Review and I'll update. Or just for the heck of it. I like reading em.

Okay, that was seriously drabby. Now, on to the story.

Continued From _"Transformations, part one"_

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Deep inside the mountain, in the base Razer and Dusk used, the small group assembled. The somewhat pentagonal control room narrowed at the far end from the main entrace was nother door. The wass that the entrance was on slanted back, dissapearing into the shadows. On the wall across from the main door was a rather large computer console that reminded Jade and Windstriker of Teletraan-1. Only this one was grey, with a wider console, and slightly smaller screen, with a smaller mini-screen on either side of the main one. Needle, the black green and blue pickup truck had gone to help windstriker, and Dusk had assisted.

Dusk, a near carbon-copy of razer, walked back in as the conversation began. The blue, pink, and red flier had pointed wings that slanted down towards the floor instead of normal seeker wings. A cybertronian battlecraft, perhaps? or, rather, a battle flier of some kind. her alt. mode did kind of look like a space ship. Her cockpit windows glimmered in the dim light from the corner.

Mic spoke first. "Who are you guys?" he looked over at the reddish brown, green, and black Razer, who's black visor and vocaliser mask gave away no expressions, then at Dusk. Razer took a step forward. "why do you think?" he answered. "We need your help." he added, a slightly regretful tone to his voice. "We have to end this war, but do not have the means nessesary to use it yet"

Syus, the now-a-green dragon, turned to his friends, iridescent hues giving his scaled armor blue and yellow shadows. "It seems we are part of this war now, until we can find a way home"

Gobee fidgeted. "And how are we gonna do that?" he asked, as if afraid to ask.

"Yeah! You saw what happened to Windstriker!" Mic echoed, only louder, and more confident. Syus looked thoughtful as he replied. "I'm sure the device Jade has has something to do with this. If it brought us here, perhaps it can send us home."

"And Windstriker's fine, thanks." a voice sounded from the doorway. There stood the purple Thunderbolt. Her armor was still dented and singed in places, but nonetheless, she was still as cheery as before. "I hope you weren't talking about me much." she teased. She walked over to where Wyldkat was, and leaned against a boulder. "So, what did I miss?" she prompted, glancing at the duo of fliers at the computer console.

"Not much." Jade replied from where she was leaning against the far corner of the console. "We were just discussing how we're going to find a way home, but we're stuck her untill then"

Syus glanced at the femmeseeker. "Ann, you have a way of oversimplifying things." Jade, who he'd called 'Ann' (her human name) gave him a look that said 'Yeah, then you explain it better than that'

Syus shook his head. "we have a choice." the dragon rumbled.

"what, hide out in a cave till we can go home, or get shot by the Autobots. Or wose yet, the Decepticons!? some choice." the small seeker shot back.

"If I may." Dusk interceded, pressing a button on the console. "Here is your way home." she motioned to the screen, and everyone turned and look. Jade shot Syus a sardonic smirk.

"This is the last kown location of the decepticon spacebridge." Dusk continued as the computer brought up a map. "Our orbiting sattelites will pick up the spacebridge the next time the decepticons open it, wherever they may build it." she explained. Mic snorted. "Some way home." Dusk shot him a querilous look, then glanced at the others. "Is this not what you were looking for?" she asked. "We're not from Cybertron." Needle sounded from the corner. Syus gave him a slightly suprised look, as though the green black and blue pickup truck had just blown their cover. And at the same time to tell him to be quiet. A small brightening of the optics, a tiny widening of the edges. That was all he needed to relay his message. Needle almost inperceptibly nodded, lookingdown at the floor and glanced back up with his optics. A descreet nod. Dusk caught both motions. "Oh." she replied, nonplussed.

that got even more suprised looks. altohugh Syus didn't seem to react. Turning back to the computer, Dusk smiled behind her facemask. Her voice took on a slightly more amused tone. "What, did you think you were the first humans to enter our dimension?" she asked, her amusement evident. She typed a couple more commands in before turning back to the group. "And you're not the first mech to resemble Megatron." she said to Bullet.

The light grey mech looked a little suprised. "What was his name? oh, I've gone and forgotten it. Oh well." she turned back to the computer.

What happened to them?" Syus asked. The green dragon's amber-colored optics flickered between Dusk and Bullet. "Some of them returned home, to your dimension." she brought up a map. "Some of them are still emprisoned on Cybertron." she added, drawing shocked gasps from the gathered group. "This is the decepticon detention facility on Cybertron. Whre the personality components of Decepticon political prisoners are held." she explained. "It's a mind-prison of sorts." windstriker put in. "we know what it is." she added. "I thought you might." Dusk nodded. "They are being held here." she pointed to a blip on the diagram. "If we can locate the spacebridge andget to cybertron, we have a chance at locating our allies in hiding there." she continued. "They may be able to help us free our imprisoned comrades." she finished.

"Once we locate the spacebridge, it shouldn't be a problem, right _Megatron_?" Jade asked, giving Bullet a broad grin. "Well, I'm not going alone." he finally responded.

"that is true." Syus glanced at the fliers, then at Bullet. "Starscream allways goes with him, doesn't he?" his gaze fell on Jade. The femmeseeker was more... feminine than the decepticon air Commander, but her paint job did remind him of him. "Yeah, Megs can't trust him to be out of his sight for more than a minute at a time." she chortled. Then she got an idea. "Hey, my transformation is the same as Starscream's. With a little armor alteration, and a vocaliser adjustment, I might be able to pass for a decent imitation." she said. "Right, oh-_mighty-leader?_" Syus raised an optic ridge at the title. Jade was looking at Bullet.

Syus realised she hadn't meant him, and looked over at bullet. "Well, I'm not so sure about vocaliser adjustments." Razer said, "but as for armor and a paint job, that we can do." he finished with a nod. "Bullet, can you imitate Megatron's voice?" Syus asked. Bullet smirked, and the next thing he said sounded just like Megatron. "Of course I can." a smirk appeared on the grey face.

"Well, what about a paint job?" Windstriker asked "You're a different shade of grey, and your cannon is on the opposite arm. And your sidepanels are blue instead of red, like his." Shockwave _will_ notice, yaknow." she pointed out. "Not a problem." Dusk replied. "We can get started right away. Syus, can you come up with a plan, in case we need a backup"

Wait!" Gobee intervened. What ever happened to trying to get home!" he argued. "Yeah." Mic frowned. "We're gonna put our asses on the line, just because of someone else's problems?"

Syus's face clouded over, like a thunderstorm waiting to break loose. "Those 'other people' you talk about so flippantly, Mic, are human beings." he hissed, the basstones in his voice resonating around the cavern. He put accent on Mic's name, so the camaro would know this was business, an no longer just a friendly discussion. "They are human beings who were brought here and trapped just like we are. And we are going ahead with this plan. If you have a problem with it, I don't see how you have any role in this mission, so don't bother worrying yourself over it." he practically hissed.

he wasn't using a threatening tone, but the challenge was there. Mic narrowed his cerulean blue optics slightly. Either he could argue, or he could step back. He didn't have any role in this mission, so why should he be concerned? oh yeah, because these were his friends. Well, for the most part. And he didn't know those other people. But he wouldn't condemn a human being to such a horrible fate under any other circumstances, would he? No. he wouldn't.

He looked away from Syus's thundering gaze, a motion of deference. He looked at the floor and mumbled where the dragon couldn't herar "fine. but don't come crying to me when you get caught." Syus watched him for a second, then nodded. He didn't hear what Mic mumbled.

He turned and started to work on his plan. "I'll need are maps, places they can hide out and/or regroup, places the patrols won't think to look of. What methods they use for detection, patrol routes, if you have any of that." Mic looked at him as he walked away, then went to find something to do.\

Halfway into his planning, Syus noticed a shadow over his left shoulder. standing there was Wyldkat. The four-door car had been quiet throughout the entire meeting. she didn't want to question their leader in front of the others and create dischord. She knew that any team had to work as a team, otherwise they would get nothing accomplished, nevertheless the smallest of goals. "Sir, I don't know about this. What if Shockwave finds out who they really are?" Syus looked at her. I mean, turned and fully faced the reliant, not just a cursory glance. His face reflected her concern. "Don't worry. If they do everything the way they're supposed to, it will work." he replied. "And besides, if they rescue the humans there, maybe they can tell us how to get home." After a minute, Wyldkat reluctantly nodded. She walked away. Syus went back to his planning.

"Syus?" she called. The dragon turned. "Is it all right if I go for a drive? I promise I won't attract attention. And I'll be careful not to be seen leaving or returning"  
Syus thought quickly. "Wouldn't the humans be worried about a driverless car driving around?" he asked. Wyldkat thought. "Yeah, I suppose so." then she got an idea. "Hey I can come up with a hologram." she transformed, and a hologram of a woman appeared in the driver's seat. The woman was about 37 or so, with long brown hair with two braids in the front, on either side, tanned skin, and brown eyes. The dragon sighed. "Very well, but report in in one hour. and be carefull. You spot an Autobot or Decepticon, or even think you have, radio us immediately"

"Yessir." the car waved off a salute and transformed, rolling for the door.


	2. Chapter 2

The dusty backroad was empty as the blue car sped along, radio softly humming a tune in the background. Wyldkat didn't notice the two low-slung formula-1 racecars coming up behind her until they zoomed past on either side. One she recognised as the spy, Mirage. But the other one... she smirked and switched her comm over to the Autobot communication frequency. "Hey Raj, wait for me!" Wyldkat revved her engine, speeding up to 95 miles per hour. "Wyldkat, is that you?" the ligier's cultured voice responded, sounding suprised.

"the one and only." Wyldkat laughed. The two racecars slowed to a crawl to let her catch up, moving apart to let her drive inbetween them. "Oh, hello warpspeed. I didn't know that was you." she greeted the second racer, who was colored in pink and grey. "You went by so fast back there, I could barely recognise you." she commented. Warpspeed, the femme racecar in grey and blue, was part of a team of Autobots called the Revolutions. That was a long story to tell, but Wyldkat was friends with them all. She had been with the revolutions the first time they entered this dimension.

The racecar femme silently preened at the compliment. "Thanks." she revved her engine slightly. "Mirage was just showing me a few tricks for racing on dirt." she added. Mirage, on the right side of the two, mumbled something to the extent of "Primus only knows, this planet has enough of it."

"So..." Warpspeed started. "I thought you went back to your home dimension so Dennis's parents wouldn't get suspicious?" she asked. "Yep, but I got bored. so now I'm back." Wyldkat shrugged, bouncing on her tires. As they reached the turnoff to the Ark, Mirage and Wyldkat transformed, but Wyldkat stayed in auto mode. " Hey, could I ask you guys for a favor?" she asked. The two racers glanced at each other. "Depends on what it is." mirage answered.

"Could you not tell anyone I'm here? I wanna suprise HighRoad -I mean Dennis. Okay?"

"Sure." the two racecar 'formers shrugged. "Thanks guys." wyldkat pulled away towards Wheeljack's workshop

"Sure, no problem. see ya later Wyldkat!" Warpspeed yelled back, waving.

"Bright as a lead-plated light bulb, that one." Wyldkat remarked under her breath, thankful the young femme was allready out of hearing range. She transformed at the outside entrance to Wheeljack's workshop, debating silently on whether she wanted to knock, or simply go walkin ing. either might be enough of a suprsie to startle the engineer enough to cause an explosion. "Heh. He's lucky he doesn't spontaneously combust periodically or something, with all the explosions he's been in." she thought wryly. She walked in.

"If you can't hear me coming you might as well ignore me." she called teasingly.

No reply.

"If nobody's home, just say so."

She waited. Again, no reply. Boy, was it dark in here. Wyldkat halted her "catbugular" walk through the workshop, wondering if she should just leave the way she came. She was worried she might step on something and have it explode.

Or kick something.

Or nudge something.

Or even 'breathe' on something.

And where the heck did the door just go? she could see it when it was open, but now it had shut on it's own, and she was trapped. "Mouse in a mine field." she muttered sarcastically.

She sighed, suddendly feeling as lost as Alice in Wonderland. "and down the bunny hole I go." she sighed.

A disembodied voice across the room replied in a soft whisper with "Bunnies? ... zzzz warm... fuzz...zzzzzz...ies." Wyldkat perked an optic ridge, resisting the urge to snicker. Then again, the vibrations might set something off in here!

No, but apparently, wheeljack had been up late working on one of his projects again. she just hoped he hadn't fallen asleep with it. If he rolled over and dropped it.

"Wheeljack?" she called.

"mm..." came the mumbled reply.

"Where is your latest project? I don't wanna step on it or anything"

"..Zzz...bunny...hole...bowrrnghenmmmmmpftrssss..." came the slurred answer. The blue femmecar couldn't help but chortle a little bit at the nonsensical answer. "And what was it?" she asked, turning her headlights on low and weaving around the large piles of junk. She suddenly wasn'tso sure she should have asked.

"Hmmmm... fuzzy...plot...bunny...pickle!"

Wyldkat snorted back a peal of laughter. What had the poor mech been up to!?"

She couldn't help it. she stealthily slid to the flooring, trying to hold it in.

"BLEEEP"

"RAWRRRR!" Wyldkat shot straight up, determined out outrun the inevitable blast radious of whatever she had just set off by SITTING ON!"

She facepalmed as she rounded another pile. "stupidstupidstupidstupid!"

Wheeljack sat up, waking up (well, halfway) "Wuh?" he looked around, not seeing anyone. Wyldkat had unfortunately been right about him taking the device to recharge with him, though. It slid off his lap onto the floor, power cell coming loose.

"BLAM"

"EEEEEE"

Wyldkat hit the floor army-style, hands over her head protectively. Luckily, the power cell was all talk and no action, as the angry explosion was really the sound of the power cell (battery) exploding. The other whatever-it-was bleeped once more and went silent.

Wyldkat glared in it's general direction from across the floor. "Wheeljack!" Wyldkat called loudly, sounding slightly miffed. no anwer. "Wheeljack!!"

"but Ratchet..." came the sleepy reply "I didn't steal your arc-welder, I swear. I just borrowed it. ZZZZZZZZZZ... it was...the...handcuffs...zzzz." snore

All anger wyldkat could have possibly had at the scientist vaporised, and it was all she could do from giggling again. "What was... No, on second thought, I DON'T want to know the answer to that one." she thought.

She successfully made her way through the workshop to where Wheeljack was asleep on his recharge berth. She smiled and carefully picked up the device, setting it on the berthside table. "Bunnies with handcuffs." she remarked, shaking her head. "And pickles." Wheeljack mumbled." Wyldkat studied him for a moment, then said in a normal speaking voice "You're not even really asleep, are you?"

One optic lit. "I was until just now." he yawned. He looked for a second, then powered up the othr optic. "Wyldkat? is that really you?" he started to sit up.

"Yeah. Look, you should get some more rechange. I'll be here for a while." she put a hand on his shoulder and smiled reassuringly.

"Uh... okay." Wheeljack lay back down.

"Is the door to the doc's office locked?" she asked.

"Uh... no, I don't think so. Why"

A shrug. "I just wanted to go in that way. No telling what I'd bump if I went back through the workshop. I'm trying to suprise HighRoad anyway"

"And boy wouldn't that be suprise." she thought. "Hey HighRoad, your car blew up Jacks' shop. Suprise!"

"Ah." Wheeljack's optics clicked off.

"Goodnight, Wheeljack." Wyldkat smiled.

"Night Kat"

She crept away, almost to the door, then a grin spread across her face. She waited till he was storing again (which wasn't very long at all), and she crept back over to him. "This is all a dream." she whispered.

"All...dream." Wheeljack mumbled.

"Yeah, I'm not here." Wyldkat added.

"Then where are you?" Jack mumbled, half pronounced. Wyldkat gave him another look.

"I was never here"

"...never...here..zzzz"

She turned away. then glanced at him out of the corner of her optic. She turned back around, and slowly leaned in. "It was the bunnies with pickled handcuffs"

She fled, cackling, before he could respond.

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Sorry, I got carried away with the ending The bunnies carried me away. No! wait! I'm just kidding! It was 3:00 in the morning when I wrote this and all nighters+coffee and M&M's are a dangerous duo for me. I get giggly.

That and Wyldkat's so much fun to write. I can never seem to write her into a really serious scene. heh.

She's also friends with Wheeljack. Yep. Oh yeah, I forgot, duh. The pickles and handcuffs are both a running joke. Pickles came from Rampage's Girl asnd the handcuff thing came from DevArt somewhere...

Bunnies is a running joke with some of my online friends, and kept alive by my mother. ; (she actually tied knots in strips of cloth and markered faces on them and lines on the loose ends for ears, then threw them at me going "Bunnies! Bunnies! Bunnies!") -cackles madly- gotta love her.

Wyldkat is Dennis (AKA HighRoad)'s car, who was pulled into the TF dimension with his team, the autobot Revolutions. She returned home so his parents (who thought the car no longer ran) wouldn't get suspicious. Right after getting the car fixed, Wyldkat was borrowed by Dennis (HighRoad's) fiancee, Ann (Jade) and became part of the Kintari (Syus's team) I've probably confused you pretty thoroughly, so if you want to see the profiles for these charas, just send me a message. I can't put the address here. It won't display if I do.

Later!


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes: This chapter heavily references the battle in part one. just so you know. And I unfortunately didn't have time to go looking for every canon character with "Wind" in their name. Windwhisperer is the property of DarkStatic. Stormwing and Woodwind are just names I came up with. My apologies if I accidentally use someone else's fancharacter. It's totally unintentional.

Also, look for Optimus Prime to act a little out-of-character in this chapter. You'll see why at the end.

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Optimus Prime looked up from his reports when the doorchime rang. "Enter." he looked back at his computer screen. Prowl walked in, and set the datapad he was holding on Prime's desk. "Here are the reports from the battle. Everyone who saw or spoke to the unidentified mechs and femme. "Prime looked up from his computer, but didn't pick up the datapad. He was trying to figure something out on his own computer, along with his daily paperwork. The red and blue semi motioned to the seat in frontof the desk. Prowl took it. Prime had spoken to Bumblebee and Spike earlier about the little black mech who called himself "Gobee", and everyone else who had either spoken to, or gotten close enough to give a detailed description of the group. They didn't have any faction symbols yet, so the Autobot leader didn't know if they were neutrals, if if nobody spotted their symbols because of the distraction of the battle.

Prime turned the monitor off and looked up. "I spoke with Spike and Bumblebee earlier. They said they had a small conversation with one of the mechs." Prowl picked up the datapad and nodded. He turned it on, flipping to the report the two had given. Spike usually wouldn't get anywhere near any of their battles. But this one he had, and perhaps it had been fortunate for the Autobots that he did so. "I spoke to Sparkplug about him. He supported their story." Prowl said, looking up. Optimus nodded. "Bumblebee and Spike said he acted as though he were... very afraid of something." Prowl nodded again. "Do you think they are deserters from the Decepticons?" he asked. Prime instantly thought of how the purple and tan femmeflier had put herself between Megatron and himself. "No, I don't believe they are." he answered.

Prowl read over the report on the datapad. "Hm. According to this, he said something about "not wanting to be here, or part of this battle, whatever that means." Prime nodded. "Have you run any of the names heard or descriptions given through Teletraan-1's database yet?" Prowl nodded. "We only have three names confirmed. Two of which came from Bumblebee and Spike. Gobee, no matches. Bullet, three matches, and..." Prowl flipped to another page. "The female that tried to save you..." Prime looked up. He remembered her chivalrous, although futile actions. He wondered who she was. Femmes were rare. Neutral femmes even more rare of, and Decepticon femmes were almost unheard of. They were usually reprogrammed Autobots or neutrals.

Prowl continued. "There were 22 records of Cybertronians with 'Wind' in their name, or variations of the word. We clearly heard the others refer to her as 'Windy'. prime nodded. Prowl continued. "Four fifths of the names listed were Decepticons. Only three matches were female." Prime knew she wasn't a Decepticon. First, her optics were blue. Secondly, what Decepticon would defy Megatron by protecting his archenemy, Optimus Prime? No, she couldn't be. That he was 100 percent positive of. He resituated himself in his chair, and leaned on the desk. "what were the names Teletraan-1 found?"

Prowl pressed a button on the datapad, then handed it to him. "Windwhisperer, Decepticon femme, transformation of a wolf. Part of the gestalt group Pathfinder. Last seen 12 centuries ago, hasn't been seen since. Prime pressed the button for the next one. "Second, Stormwing, neutral, seeker. Reported as deactivated in an attack on Kalhedron, right before the Ark took off from Iacon over 4 million years ago. But." Prime looked up. "Was seen alive twelve months ago by our Cybertronian operatives, wearing the Decepticon faction symbol. Grey and green in color." Prime 'hmm'ed and went to the next one. third, Woodwind, neutral, ex-musician. Last seen roughly 300 years ago. Alt. mode is land-based, cream and brown in color, green accents." Prime nodded. "So none of these listings match the femme we saw?" Prowl nodded. "I have included a listing of mechs and femmes that might match the physical description also, and the same parameters for the others we saw."

"How many fit the physical description for Gobee?" Prime asked. Prowl pointed to the datapad. "thirty total, both living and assumed deactivated. None that were confirmed deactivated, however. Although we may have been wrong in the past, I see no reason to assume the mech we saw is one of those assumed deactivated."

Again, Prime nodded.

"Out of the thirty, only fifteen matched the height description, ten of whom share the same facial covering."

Prime nodded. Bumblebee said the little mech had a vocoder mask. And that the car-bot was only as tall as him, maybe an inch or two taller. "Thank you, Prowl." Prime set the datapad next to his computer. He would look over the other names and descriptions later.

Prowl got up to leave, but the doorchime rang just as he reached the door. "Enter." Prime answered. The door slid open to reveal Wyldkat standing there. Prowl stepped back, and changed his mind about leaving. He wanted to hear what she had to say. They had seen her atop the valley with her friends after the battle. Prime's optics widened slightly in suprise, the only hint he was suprised to see her. "Wyldkat." he sounded a little suprised, too. "Come in." he motioned to the seat Prowl had just left. "By all means, have a seat." Prowl took the chair next to her. "Thank you, sir." the blue car sat. Prime waited patiently for whatever she was about to say. Although he had a sneaking supicion he knew why she was here. And she probably had information on her new friends.

"Have you guys seen HighRoad? I need to talk to him?" she asked. She would rather tell all this to HighRoad. he would know how to handle it. She could tell him who the group really was. They had arrived her by exactly the same means as Highroad and his group, the Autobot Revolutions. Maybe he would be able to help her convince Jade and her group that the autobots were their allies, not their friends. But if she told Optimus Prime, he minght go and do something stupid trying to convince the group to join the Autobots. and Scythe (Syus) trusted Razer and Dusk too much to believe anyone but them. In a way, Wyldkat believed, he had become blinded to the truth of the situation by a pair of neutral... no, Kintaari, she reminded herself, fliers who sought nothing but revenge on both the factions that were in this war, for destroying their home and ruining their lives.

She shifted in her seat. Eventually, she believed, that selfish goal might cause their demise. and she didn't want to see her friends go with them. so now, she was here. Trying to do something about it. But she couldn't simply give the Autobots every bit of informations she knew about her friends. they would rush off, straight to the Kintaari base and cause a confrontation. And even if they didn't, it would still cause problems for her friends. razer andDusk would never accept the autobots as their allies. And if the Autobots found out everything about them, they would know exactly who told them about the group. Wyldkat was the only one who had left the base since they first arrived here. Sure, Gobee could have said something about them. But he had no reason to tell the Autobots everything about the Kintaari, nor the time. And Wyldkat was pretty sure the little black car didn't have access to the personell files on the main computer, or the time to work up an adequate overview of the team to give the Autobots. No, she couldn't betray her friends. A conflict would only get people killed.

She looked at the floor, then met the leader's gaze. Prime responded to her query with "HighRoad is currently busy. But whatever information you have, you can trust us with." There was a pause, then Prowl added, somewhat accusingly "I presume this has to do with your new friends?" Wyldkat hadn't thought they'd seen her, but they had. She knew it wasn't a matter of trust. It was just a 'gut feeling' she had that if she told them everything now, there would be hell to pay later. She shifted slightly in her seat. "I can't tell you a lot about them. If they even catch me here, I'll be tried as a traitor..." _"heaven only knows what kind of spy devices they have."_ she added in her thoughts.

"But I can tell you they aren't Decepticons. And they have more in common with the revolutions than you might think.

"What do you mean by that?" Prime rumbled, genuinely curious.

Wyldkat paused, then added "I'm sorry, I can't tell you that, sir"

Prime gave her a look. She was witholding information and he knew it. But why? Wyldkat checked her chronometer. She knew she shouldn't have taken so long in Wheeljack's lab, and talking with FirstAid and Swoop in the repairbay before coming here. Prowl frowned. Prime asked "Well, can you at least tell us how many people are in your group?" Wyldkat pulled out a datapad and handed it to him. "you didn't get this from me." she insisted. On the datapad were the names, designations, alt. modes, and some other information. Wyldkat had purposely left out Razer and Dusk. She didn't want the Autobots to see them, and she was pretty sure they had a dubious past. If it was as bad as her instincts were telling her, the Autobots would probably flip out and cause a confrontation. She knew how much they all hated naieve mechs and femmes being led astray. Or wosre yet, the autobots might think the Kintaari weren't so naieve, and think they were the enemy. This way, all that would be prevented.

Prime nodded. "Thank you, Wyldkat. Are you sure you can't tell us any more than this?" he hoped maybe they could convince their femmecar friend to tell them just a little bit more than she had just provided. Wyldkat shook her head. "No, sir. I'm sorry. They don't know I'm here, even. they think I'm out 'cruising for fresh air' she did a quotation mark motion with her fingers and have them an easy smile. "I see." Prime responded. Wyldkat stood. "They don't know about my past and present alliegance with the Revolutions. I'm taking a risk, but I'll try to keep you updated on their plans and stuff. I have to go. I'll report in periodically." She stood there for a moment, and Prime realised she was waiting to be dismissed. "You can go." He smiled behind his faceplate. Now, if all his soldiers had that kind of respect for their commander, he thought. But then again, most of the Revolutions were young and some of them still rather... adventurous. (immature) "I look forward to your future reports." he added, hoping to encourage her to come forward with more information in the near future.

Wyldkat reached the door and paused, turning back around. "If you see HighRoad, could you tell him I was here?" she asked. "I'm... kind of starting to miss him." she added, smiling sheepishly.

Prime smiled back behind his facemask. "I'll make sure he knows." he replied.

Wyldkat's smile broadened slightly. "thank you, sir." and with that, she walked out.

Once the door shut, Prowl noticed Prime was staring at the door she had left. He said something in a low voice Prowl had to straing to hear, but when he realised what the red and blue Autobot had said, his expression darkened.

"I miss you, too, girl"

Prowl glared. "And just when were you going to let me in on your little secret!?"

"tell you what"

"that you're not Prime, HighRoad." Prowl replied, voice accusing.

"Huh? oh..uhmm... I... Well..." The confident leaderly disposition dissolved into a slightly emberassed look. "Well, Prime said he had a meeting to go to, and asked me to keep an optic out here, and keep the peace while he was gone." The crimson and navy blue mech shrugged.  
"So why didn't he tell me, then?" Prowl demanded, almost glaring.

Highroad shifted in his seat. "Because he knew you'd freak?" Prowl quirked an optic ridge.

"Okay, so that wasn't how he said it, but he knew you thought I was too inexperienced, and that you wouldn't agree with it, wouldn't find it logical or something like that, and he didn't have the time to stop and debate about it. He had to leave, so he left me in charge here." He explained.

Prowl frowned deeper, making a mental note to ask Optimus about this later. It was exremely unsound to leave someone so inexperienced in charge of the Ark, and surely Prowl could do a better job. Heck, HighRoad could barely keep his own troups in line, never the less deal with the twins terrors, the Lamborgini brothers, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker."

Prowl mentally facepalmed. He realised his own folly all to quickly, and should have realised it was HighRoad before even giving the report. HighRoad had even convinced him he was Optimus Prime. Perhaps he was getting better at dealing with things. But he just hoped that if trouble did arise, that HighRoad would come to him for advice before handling the situation. He finally replied with "You know, I don't think comandeering Prime's office was what he meant when he asked you to "Keep an optic on things here." "And I do believe there are certain protocols to be followed when empersonating the Autobot leader." he added flatly, giving the imposter a look. The Prime mimic looked thoughtful for a second, looking all-too-much like his noble counterpart. He even had the Autobot leader's 'thinking expression' downcopied perfectly.

Prowl had never liked having the pretender here. And Highroad was supposed to _tell _him if a situation arose that required him to impersonate their leader. But that was usually in a dire emerghency, when Prime was needed in two places at once, and couldn't be in both places. "Yes, I suppose you're right. And I apologise for such... deception." he sounded just like Prime, too. gah. Prowl knew he shouldn't have let Ratchet work on the vocoder masking device in Highroad's facemask. But now he had to deal with it.

"He never mentioned those rules before, though. I shall ask him about it when he returns." And the speech pattern was almost-perfect, too. HighRoad gave Prowl a grin, although he couldn't see it, knowing how much it irked the 2CO to imitate his counterpart. But the 2CO did register the mischevious twinkle in his optics. "In the meantime..." the dark red and dark blue semi handed Prowl the datapad Wyldkat had just given him. "I believe we have some research to do."

Prowl nodded and took the datapad. "And perhaps this time Teletraan-1 can find out something about these mechs. Prowl follwed Prime out of the office and started reading the datapad.

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Yup, that's right. It was HigRoad all along. So were you fooled, too? Didjya really think it was Prime? LOL. More soon, promise!


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, things are starting to gear up to get going. The next couple of chapters will be when the action starts. (hopefully).

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A few miles from the Ark, a small mountain sat tranquily in the mid-morning sun. The top suddenly shuddered, and a pile of rocks slid loose, and tumbled off unnoticed. A pair of birds swawked and flew off, startled from their perch. a small panel slid aside, and a small sattelite sprung out, unfolding as it ascended into the sky. It became a small dot, then dissapeared into the atmosphere.

Deep inside the mountain, in a cavern that had been modified into a base, a pair of mechs stood at a large computer resembling Teletraan-1, the Ark's main comuter. Only this one was grey colored with a slightly smaller screen, and a wider console that extended past the main screens on either side. A smaller screen on each side of the main one displayed various readouts.

The mech on the left had green colored scaled armor, which had iridescent hues of yellow and blue, depending on how the light hit it. You could almost see how his alt. mode was that of a winged American dragon. The dragon head resting on his chestplate was a dead giveaway. His dark green almost black wings draped around his shoulders, hooked on by the small hook on the wingjoint, resembling a cape. His amber-colored optics scanned the information, then Scythe turned to regaurd the person next to him.

The mech next to Scythe on his right was a flier, but not in the Earthly sense. His alt. mode was a derivative of an anchient Cybertronian battle flier. Something never seen, and long since forgotten. His solid black wings were angled towards the floor, and tapered slightly towards the tips, which were angled almost 45 degrees inward towards the space between his wings. The six inch (relative to Transformer size) points were kind of like the points on a seeker's wingtips, but about twice as long. His green, reddish brown and red/blue highlighted color scheme seemed to accent his alt. mode, which was obvious because of the cockpit on his chest, kind of like a primitive version of a modern seeker. But there was nothing primitive about Razer. This mech was cold and calculating. And would stop at nothing to achieve what he believed to be his greatest goal. But that was another story, to be told a different time.

His face, completely covered by his vocoder mask and black-colored visor, betrayed nothing. He noticed the Dragone, called Scythe's sideways glance, but wasn't sure what it meant. An unspoken question of some sort, perhaps? Razer, the flier turned back to the computer, watching the view of the ground widen as the "Drifter" Sattelitte ascended, transmitting it's images from it's on-board camera. Various lines of text scrolled across the small screen to the right one, displaying energy signatures, electromagnetic fields, even some of the humans's radio frequencies were detected by the satellitte's watchful sensors.

Behnd the duo, The purple and tan jet, Windstriker, an A-10 Thunderbolt, paced restlessly.

They continued to discuss their plans for the mission ahead, and backup plans in case something should go wrong. All while keeping an eye on the "Drifter"s readouts for the energy signature that indicated the prescence of the Decepticon spacebridge. They were totally oblivious to her prescence, it seemed. "I'm gonna go see how the amor alterations and stuff are going." she announced. Scythe, the dragon, turned his head slightly and nodded, watching her reflection in the monitor screen.

Down the metal-plated corridor in the repair cave, Dusk was putting Bullet's armcannon back on his arm mounting, which had been moved to his other arm. The femme flier had the same alt. mode as Razer, except that Dusk lacked the visor. Her color scheme was pink and blue primarily, and her optics blue with the smallest hint of lavender in them. Bullet hopped off the repair table and stood. He noticed Windstriker frowning deeply at him. "She's probably remembering the battle with Megatron earlier." he thought. Adopting his best "I-am-Megatron" voice, he asked "What's wrong, my dear? You act like you've never seen the Decepticon leader before." There was a hint of humor in his voice. "Don't like what you see?" He looked over his arms, noting how funny it felt to have the weight of his armcannon resting on the other arm. Windstriker had just opened her mouth to make a snide comment about Megatron when Starscream's voice drifted through the cavern.

The seeker himself-er herself, rather, glided around the machinery. "I'm telling you, Megatron, your plan isn't going to work!" the seeker walked... no, strode? no, sauntered over to stand a few feet away, grinning. The smile vanished as the Starscream imposter tried to get herself into character. Jade had been right about sharing the same alt. mode and almost the same color scheme as Starscream. and dang if she didn't look just like him right now!  
"Now I could come up with a _much_ better plan than _you_ ever could." the seeker taunted, smirking. Megatron ( who was actually Bullet in disguise) sighed. "Shut up, Starscream"  
"Of course, oh _wise_ and _Mighty_"  
The smirk turned into a grin "_Illustrious,_ powerfull, _all-knowing_"  
"I said **shut up**!" Megatron turned and aimed his fusion cannon at the seeker's face. The smile he was wearing was anything but malicious, though.

'Starscream' pouted. exaggeratedly. "But, I was _just saying_..." The pout vanished in that instant, and both broke imposters broke into chorused laughter. The whole fight had been fake, of course. Windstriker chuckled. "Do they really fight like that?" she wondered aloud. Bullet (Megatron) nodded. Jade (aka Starscream) added "yup. They sure do. All the time. heh." She looked at Bullet and pasted her hands on her hips. She stated (with mock sarcasm) "Well at least _he_ gets to keep his vocoder box on it's original algorithm. Me, I have to deal with sounding like that rude, swawky, loudmothed, tin-foil plated kite-modeled two-byte..." Bullet facepalmed. Still sounding like Megatron, he said "Now you know why I'm so grumpy all the time." That sent the entire room into a whole new round of laughter. Starscream ceased his-er her tirade to join in the fresh peals of laughter the joke produced.

"Well." Dusk announced, still chuckling. I think they're ready to go"

'Starscream' smirked again. "Well, it _could_ have been worse, oh-_mighty_-Megatron." the pretender waited for a round of curious looks before continuing "we could have painted you pink with sparkles." Dusk squeaked with laughter. Her vocaliser mask didn't allow her to show her mirth, but the flier's shoulders shook, imagining how it would look. 'Megatron' just chuckled and shook his head, going back to his regular voice. "Come on, let's go get this done and over with." he headed for the door. He adopted his Megatron voice, intent on practicing it as much as possible before the mission. "Let's see if they've found the spacebridge yet."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

When they walked into the main cavern, Mic, Needle, and Gobee had set up a table in the corner on the far side of the computer console, and were discussing how to make or where to find a Transformer-sized deck of playing cards. "Hey, we could allways sneak into the Ark and steal some of theirs. I'll bet they have a deck." Mic sniggered. The white camaro Z-28 looked over at Gobee, the minispy-sized black and silver BMW 530i next to him. The car didn't look impressed. He was just thankful he had his vocalizer mask to hide some of his apprehension behind.

He looked at Needle. The black, dark green and blue pickup truck looked back at Mic, who shrugged. Scythe glanced at the trio then at the computer. He spotted Windstriker and Dusk coming in. Behind them were none other than Starscream and the Decepticon leader himself. Megatron.

"I do believe it was a success." Starscream chirped from behind Megatron. The Megatron lookalike said nothing in reply. Scythe nodded. "Good. Now all we have to do is find the spacebridge, and we'll be ready to get on with this mission." he stated, turning back to the controls. Razer hit another key. "I think I may have found something." he stated. The group from the repairbay walked over to see. A small blip appeared on the screen, blinking red. The view of the grouond was overlaid with a grid outline, and the camera zoned in on the area. Sure enough, there in the middle of a clearing of trees, surrounded by forest, was a tiny circle of Metal. and standing around it were the winged forms of the Decepticon flier trine. Starscream looked at Thundercracker and pointed, saying something. Thundercracker was carrying a sheet of metal for the partially-plated spacebridge, halted and waved an arm, head jerking slightly as he made his no-doubt-cocky reply. The third jet, a black colored on came up and said something to Thundercracker. The blue jet and black jet walked away to finish their work on the spacebridge. Scythe blinked. "Well, it seems as though we have found them. Now all we need to do is wait for them to finish it, and wait for Starscream to leave." The others nodded.

--------------------------------------------------------------

At the Spacebridge...

Starscream glared at his trinemates as they left to continue their work. He was the Air Commander ! he wasn't suited for menial work such as this! Thundercracker walked up, holding a sizeable square of metal. "Hey screamer, ya gonna help, or just stand around all day?" he asked.

"Yeah, well... _somebody_ has to be in charge here!" the red and blue seeker retorted. Thundercracker snickered. "Yeah, well it sure aint you." he mutterred. Then aloud "If Megatron sees you standing around doing nothing, he's not gonna be happy about it." he said. Starscream glowered. "Unlike _you_, _I_ am doing something _useful_. I am keeping an optic out for any enemy spies that may be in the area. And _you_..." he pointed. "Need to talk less and work more, or I shall be the one to tell Megatron about people not doing their assigned jobs, and it will be you recieving the punishment for not obeying Megatron's commands!"

Skywarp walked up. "Shut up, Starscream. There's no Autobots around. We're miles and miles away from their base. And besides, how could they know we're her? we're in the middle of a stinkin forest"

"I don't care if we're in the middle of a forest or the middle of the _ocean_! there's _still _the chance that one of their little spies is running around here. Maybe that tree-hugging one that's as green as forest he loves so much. You won't be laughing when they ruin our plans. And _I'm_ not going to be the one to turn a blind eye and take the blame if they show up and trash our latest project. So shut up and get back to work!" he screeched.

Skywarp, the black jet, looked at Thundercracker, the blue one. "Come on, cracker. We got better things to do than stand around and listen to Starscream complain all day"

"Yeah, _somebody's_ got to get some work done around here." the blue jet retorted. And the two jets went back to work placing the panels over the circuitry on the new spacebridge.

Thundercracker uprighted himself to look over the metal barrier at Skywarp, who was on the other side. "Don't worry. when Megatron finds out Starscream did nothing but stand around all day and watch for Autobots, we'll be the ones gettingthe reward for sorking so hard on the spacebridge." he whispered.

"yeah." Skywarp glanced at Starscream. "He's a little tightly wound today, don't you think?"

"Yeah." thundercracker nodded slowly. "Why, you have something in mind for after we get this job done?"

Skywarp smirked mischeviously. "Maybe"

Starscream turned and looked at him. He sounded less annoyed now, even humored, maybe. "Don't even think about it, Skywarp. You know how much Megatron dispises your pranks. If he catches you painting Ravage teal and purple again, He will surely dismantle you."

Starscream had caught his thoughts again.

Rats!

"Err-what was the positive side of being trinemates again?" Skywarp asked, smirking cheekily. He quickly turned his thoughts to something else he could to to pass the time. Skywarp snorted and shook his head.

"Don't you dare." he chided. Sure, fliers inside of a trine shared thoughts. It was something all seeker trines did, so they could communicate at the speed of thought. But thundercracker and Skywarp knew it also meant Starscream could hear and see it also. And that meant blackmail material later, if they carried out Skywarp's plans.

"Later." thundercracker quickly said, and went back to work. Skywarp just sighed and went back to work, wishing the constructicons would return with the rest of the materials so they could get this thing built and get back to the Nemesis. They were afraid of the Autobots finding out about their newest spacebridge, but they weren' about to tell Starscream that. It would just add more fuel to the afterburner, so to speak.

Thundrcracker looked over at him. "Aren't you going to help? even just little bit? yaknow, Megatron ordered you to help us build this thing, too." Starwcream tuned his back to them. "You don't want us to tell Megatron you didn't do anything but stand around the entre time, do ya"  
"_Somebody_ has to compensate for Megatron's oversights. It's not _my_ fault he constantly fails to see the flaws in his plans." The seeker retirted.

"Okayyy..." thundercracker reached for his comm.

Skywarp's optics widened. "What're you-"

BLAM!

The laserblast came mere inches from the blue jet's arm. Starscream was glaring daggers, and his armcannon trailed smoke. "Next time. You won't be so lucky. I won't miss." he hissed.

Skywarp's face darkened. "No, but when the Constructicons get back, who's gonna let you then?" he retorted. Starscream harrumphed and turned away again, unable to come up with an adequate reply.

The sound of construction vehicle engines rumbled, and the Constructicons appeared. "It's about time you got here." Starscream stated, only half as inscenced as before. "I had to put up with these two boltheads all on my own." Hook transformed first. "Well excuse me, but we had a job to do here, and it's not _our _job to sit around and babysit you all." Behind him Boncrusher snickered. Mixmaster rolled up. "Yeah. We had a job to do. So why don't you do ours and leave us alone." Skywarp gave them a glance then looked at Starscream like "See? I told you so." Starscream grumbled under his breath andf snatched up a peice of metal, heading over to the contruct, and grumbling the entire time.


	5. Chapter 5

Scrapper checked the signal jamming device as the last few panels were put on the spacebridge. Still working. Starscream clicked on his comm. "Starscream to Megatron. Do you read?"

Back at the underwater Decepticon base, Megatron hit a button on the computer console, and Starscream's slate grey face appeared on the screen. "Report." Megatron commanded. "The Megatron is finally completed, Megatron. But I..." Megatron cut him off.

"Excellent. I shall arrive shortly to inspect your work. Keep a watchful eye out for those meddling Autobots."

"Yes Megatron..." Starscream replied, but anything after that was cut off when Megatron cut the connection.

Meanwhile, in the trees above the 'construction crew', Laserbeak watched amusedly. Megatron had ordered Soundwave to dispatch him for surveillance of the work team, to make sure Starscream didn't try anything sneaky. He might be able to use Starscream's action as blackmail against him later, but that was up to master Soundwave to decide. So long as there was an energon cube in it for him, he would watch anyone anywhere, or whatever lord Megatron wanted. Actually, he would anyway if ordered, but the cube just made it more enjoyable. Call it a bribe, of sorts. Soundlessly, he took off from the tree to meet up with lord Megatron and master Soundwave as they left the Nemesis. Lord Megatron would want his report on the way here.

The metal condor squawked a greeting as he approached, and Soundwave opened his chest cassette-door for the bird to slide in. He started his report.

About ten or fifteen minutes later, Megatron landed at the newly created spacebridge, Soundwave beside him. he knew about Starscream's conversation with his trinemates. The Construction group walked up. "Hail, Megatron." Hook greeted. Megatron nodded to them. Starscream gave the crane (Hook) a look as though to say 'kissup' "It's about time you got here." the seeker said, his high-pitched voice almost making it sound like he was whining. "These two spent the entire time talking instead of getting any work done." he complained.

"We did too get work done." Thundercracker glared back, but Megatron just gave Starscream a tiresome look. As though he was already tired to the seeker's complaining. "And you didn't?" he asked accusingly. Starscream actually looked surprised. "I did half the work!" behind him, Skywarp rolled his optics. Megatron folded his arms. "That's not what Laserbeak reported.

"Hah! that tin-foil turkey doesn't know micro-welder from micro-chips, let alone who's doing the work around here!"

Soundwave's visor flashed, though it went unseen. "Report, accurate; Starscream, inaccurate."

Megatron didn't glance back at his second-in-command. He knew the truth of what had happened. "Laserbeak's video surveillance of you said otherwise." he leaned forward slightly, getting into the seeker's personal space a little bit, towering slightly over him. "I saw it with my own optics"

Starscream took a step back, sputtering. well...I..I...Someone had to keep a watchful eye out for the Autobots! What if they had detected our presence?" He retorted. Megatron tried to keep his anger in check. He really didn't want to argue with Starscream just now. "You yourself told me to keep a watchful eye out for them not even twenty astro-seconds ago!"

Megatron glared. "That's because the Constructicons' jamming signal device was temporary. It was supposed to have been packed up so we could take it back to the Nemesis with us to use another time." he raised his voice a little. "It was running the entire time you were building the spacebridge!"

Starscream huffed. "And what if there had been a problem with your little device? you put so much faith into such shoddily constructed machinery"

"GAH!" Megatron's eyes lit volcanic red, and Starscream took another step back, fearful. In the background, Hook snorted. "How dare you doubt our skills!" Megatron gave him a cursory glance. The other Constructicons had started to murmur agreements, and voice their displeasure. "Enough!" Megatron commanded. Constructicons, you will return to base and collect your reward. Skywarp and Thundercracker will escort you back." the now incensed leader turned his angry gaze back to Starscream, who had started to ask "But what about me, Megatron?" He actually sounded like he was afraid of the answer he was about to get. Megatron smiled inwardly. He would punish the seeker without ever laying a finger on him. Yes, that would work nicely.

"Since you are so concerned with the safety of our new spacebridge, you may stay here and guard it."

Starscream's face visibly fell. Him! the Decepticon Air Commander, reduced to mere guard duty!

"Oh, Don't worry." Megatron held up a hand to stave off any further comments. His voice took on a tone of fake pity. "I wouldn't _dare_ leave you here to guard the spacebridge _all by yourself_." he turned to Soundwave. "Soundwave, dispatch Rumble and Frenzy." as Soundwave hit the eject button, Megatron turned back to the Air Commander. "I trust you will get along?" it wasn't a question. It might have sounded like a question, but it wasn't. The two Cassetticons looked up at Megatron, then at Starscream. Megatron's voice lowered to a threatening rumble. "And if anything happens to this spacebridge, Starscream, I will hold you _personally_ responsible"

Megatron stooped to address the two Cassetticons. "You are to stay here with Starscream and guard the spacebridge." he lowered his voice so Starscream would think he wasn't meant to hear it, but purposely kept his voice at a level the seeker jet could hear. "And if he attempts any treachery, Contact me immediately." He stood back to his full height and gave Starscream a look that said he would shoot the seeker if he argued. Megatron turned and walked away. He took to the air, Soundwave following. "I will return in eight earth-hours to relieve you of your post. Until then, here is your reward." he pulled out an energon cube and threw it at the ground. Starscream scrambled to catch it, but it hit the ground and exploded.

Megatron had already flown away, too far to hear if Starscream yell anything. Not that Starscream would have lowered himself to grovel and plead. Or yell _"Wait, Megatron, come back!"_ like he so wanted to. No, he was better than that.  
"Shoulda moved faster, Starscream." Frenzy teased.

"Shut up, pipsqueak!" Starscream retorted.

"Hey!" Rumble stepped in. "Who 'ya callin' a pipsqueak, Screamer!?"

Starscream really didn't want to let these two mini-cons get away with such insubordination. he wanted to pound the both of them, just to relieve some of his stress. His day was not going well at all. But if he did start a fight with them, he'd be in big trouble with Megatron for it later. The two would probably tell Soundwave, who would tell Megatron. He grimaced. He sighed. and here he'd though Megatron _might actually_ be in a good mood because his new spacebridge had been finished, and that his plans were actually going according to schedule. _"Why Me?"_ he thought, looking up at the sky. He wished he could be up there, flying around right now. Or, well, anywhere but here. Anything but this.

Little did Starscream know, the very spot in the sky he was looking at was where the drifter satellite hung in the Earth's atmosphere, it's camera looking back down on him. And an anxious set of faces watching the main viewscreen of their computer inside their mountain-base, watching the image transmitted from the satellite's camera. "Can he see us?" Jade (who was currently disguised as Starscream) asked. Windstriker, the purple femmejet next to her, gave her an 'are you stupid?' look. "Huh? Oh, I meant, can he see the satellite. eheh." the now-a-Starscream-mimic amended. Bullet, who was now identical to Megatron, gave her a sidelong glance. "No." Razer answered. The reddish-brown, green, and black Cybertronian jet was between Jade and Bullet, manning the controls to the small spy satellite. They watched the screen for a few second more, than Jade broke the silence. "If I may.." she smirked. "I might have an idea on how we can get past Starscream and across the spacebridge...

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Yup, things are about to get exciting. And no, i haven't forgotten the Autobots. I had originally planned for this to go Autobots, Kintari, Decepticons, repeat. Unfortunately my muse favors my fancharacters, and I'm REALLY trying not to let that happen.

More will be up soon.


	6. Chapter 6

Starscream grumbled, savagely kicking a rock as he paced back and forth in front of the spacebridge he was gaurding. The two figures hiding inside the treeline glanced at each other. Razer had told Jade exactly how to work the spacebridge while Bullet had Starscream distracted. But she wasn't so sure it would work. What if Starscream tried to shoot him? and don't even say Starscream wouldn't try to shoot Megatron. One hint of weakness, and he would. He had tried to before. And besides the fact that Bullet only looked like Megatron, he did not have the armor thickness Megatron had. One shot from Starscream and he would be out, and their plan would be a flop.

"I say we just shoot him." Jade, who was disguised as Starscream, mumbled. Bullet gave her a look. "If we do he'll go right back to Megatron and report on what happenned."He replied. "No he won't. Megatron left him in charge of gaurding the spacebridge. If he fails at that, he knows he'll be in even more trouble for letting it happen. So he'll either tell Megatron and recieve a beating, or keep his mouth shut and continue to gaurd the spacebridge." she reasoned. Bullet 'hmm'ed. Razer had given her a simple hologram. Not complex enough to fool someone is she used it to look like starscream. That would be a waste of energy, also, since she allready looked somewhat like him. The hologram was that of a simple, nondescript black-colored mech. He stood up "what are you..." Jade stopped as Bullet walked out towards where Starscream was. "Report."

the seeker whirled. "Me-megatron. How long have you been standing there?" apparently, Starscream had been talking smack about Megatron when Bullet (disguised as Megatron) walked up. "I just landed, you ibicile. Shockwave requires my prescence on Cybertron." He walked over to the trees. "We captured one of the renegade cybertronians that was helping the Autobots. And I want to see what kind of information he has." he winked at Jade, who grinned and went limp. 'Megatron' (Bullet) threw the black mech, (Jade masked by a hologram) over his shoulder. Starscream eyed the duo. "Wouldn't Soundwave be able to get the information you..."

"Are you questioning me, Starscream!" the mock-megatron demanded, sounding for all the world exactly like his evil counterpart. "No, but I just..."

Bulllet cut him off again., "Good! then activate the spacebridge! and don't try ANYTHING till I get back!"

"y-yes, Megatron." starscream hurriedly activated the spacebridge ring as 'Megatron' dumped the 'unconcious'(not really) mech on the ground. Jade (the black mech) tried not to "oof" too loudly. Once the sequence had started, it was not stoppable. Aside from shooting the spacebridge controls. And there was no telling how the holographic field would effect the spacebridge's transmitting beam. So Jade deactivated it., she stood up as it faded, looking exactly like Starscream, grinned, and waved, watching the red and blue seeker's optics go round. "Bye Bye.." she chuckled.

In Starscream's voice. Starscream could barely squeak before the sky lit up, and the two were gone. He gulped. "What do I do? Megatron's going to deactivate me if he finds out!" he worried. "Then again." he looked at the spacebridge. "Perhaps they can rid the Decepticons of that overly-loyal skidplate-kisser, Shockwave. Then *I* will be able to return to Cybertron and become the new ruler! Yes. I like that." Starscream smirked.

Frenzy turned around at Starscream's exclamation, but totally missed Jade's hologram being switched off. He gave Starscream a look. "You wish. And who ya talkin about?"

-Cybertron, about 30 seconds later-

The doors slid open, and Bullet steeled himself, Shockwave was Megatron's most trusted ally. Even moreso than Starscream. Jade beside him noticed his tension. "You didn't think of how you would get past shockwave, did you?" she asked, vocoder alterations making her sound exactly like the snooty air commander. "Of course I did, Starscream." Bullet replied in his Megatron voice. The doors were opening, and he didn't want Shockwave to hear him use his regular voice.

Speaking of the pea-brained leutenant, uh, where was he?

Bullet glanced around as he stepped out of the spacebridge, Jade (disguised as Starscream) following. "Speaking of your _oh-so-loyal_ lieutenant," the seeker drawled. "Uh, where is he?" the Starscream imposter opticshifted to look around the control tower. All the lights were off, the computer monitors were blank, and there was no sign of the purple gun-former anywhere. P  
"Hm. I guess he's in recharge?" Megatron replied, a hint of humor in his voice. Starscream snorted. "Beginner's luck." the seeker retorted, but gave the Megatron lookalike a smirk that said there some some humor to the wry comment. "Well, let's go before..." Bullet's words were cut off as the doors opened and Shockwave plodded in, looking like he was about to fall over he was so tired. Like he had just walked three laps around the planet. "He saw and his single optic light bulb brightened. "M-megatron!" the purple Decepticon blurted. Just as quickly as the suprise hit it left, and the leiutenant stiffened into a formal stance and saluted. "Hail, Megatron."P

Bullet grinned inwardly. "Hail, Shockwave. What have you to report?" Bullet replied without skipping a beat. Jade shot him a look, wondering how he had figured out so much about Megatron in such a short period of time to kow how Megatron would respond in kind to that greeting. Shockwave's stance faltered for a millisecond "I-uh... Had I known you were coming, Lord Megatron, I would have prepared a report, but I-" Bullet cut him off. "You were taking a break? were you slacking on your duty shift, shockwave?" the Megatron imposter asked accusingly. "What! of course not, Megatron, I..." Soundwave was shocked, if not suprised. Megatron had never spoken to him in such a manner. Not in quite a long time. It had been millions of years since the leader last snapped at him. After all, Shockwave was the appointed Gaurdian of Cybertron, not one of his pathetic troups. "I was under the impression my duty shift had ended." he finally admitted.

"Then you assumed wrong. If one is gaurding over Cybertron, one does not have time to rest." Megatron hit a key on the computer, bringing up a display of the outside city. "What information do you have on the newest group of Transfomers?" he asked, scrolling through the surveilance cameras as he spoke. "Sir?" Shockwave was truly lost now. "You never reported to me-" he paused when 'Megatron' turned to give him a glaring look. There was a glint of something dangerous in Megatron's optics.

Soundwave bowed his head slightly, as though to appease his commander. "I regret to inform you, sir, I did not recieve that report."

"What!" Megatron turned to the red and blue seeker behind him. "Starscream! I ordered you to send that report to Cybertron! Did you or did you not send it!" he demanded, cold fury lacing his voice. The seeker stumbled."...uh...I..uh..." the jet looked over at Shockwave and then back at Megatron. "Of *course* I sent the report. I'm not *that* incompetent. The air commander sent Shockwave an accusing look, and Shockwave glared back as much as his single light bulb could emit facial expression. "I tell you, Starscream, I did not get the report." he shot back.

The seeker rolled his optics. "Yes, well, don't blame your incompetence on me. It was your-"

"Enough!" Megatron barked. "We will discuss this later. I have investigations to do. I have recieved word of possible information on the whereabouts of the Cybertronian allies for this new group." Megatron waved his hand, as though dismissing the argument. "Do you wish me to dispatch a group of drones to with you, Megatron?" Shockwave asked, wondering why he couldn't just send the drones to retrieve the informant by force. "No. I think we can handle it." Megatron motioned to himself and Starscream. "You have done enough." He walked out, followed by starscream. Shockwave watched them leave, and a pang of suspicion making itself known. He might be low on energy, but he was not stupid. And Megatron would never treat him like "just another Decepticon soldier". He had allways had respect for the gaurdian. Plus, there was something else, but he couldn't quite place it.

No, something was wrong. Very wrong. He turned to the computer and typed a few keys. "Shockwave calling Earth, do you read me Earth. Megatron, are you there?"

-P  
The two hurried out of the control tower and into the darkened city streets. "Whew, that was close." Bullet remarked, giving Jade a glance. The femmeseeker laughed. "are you kidding? you had me this" she held up two fingers a micrometer apart "close to freaking out back there. starting an argument with me. Good job, captain blame game."

"Hey, I got us out of there, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but something tells me the hard part is going to be getting back in when it's time to go home."  
The two sighed and headed for the security section. Razer and Dusk had somehow managed to get the sodes to get in, though they claimed it was from an earlier rescue attempt. Jade idly wodered why Shockwave wouldn't change the security codes. Unless he didn't know about the breakin. In that case, (if he didn't), it seemed he really *was* lacking.

The duo ducked into a side street to avoid a patrol and double-checked their coordinates. It was in the darker part of the planet's rotaion, coincidentally referred to as "second rotation" on cybertron. bullet put the datapad away. "Okay, looks like it's not far from here." the Megatron lookalike nodded. "Then what're we waiting for, oh *mighty leader*." the starscream lookalike, Jade, grinned widely. Bullet made a sighing sound and shook his head. "Sometimes I think you're enjoying this way too much.

"Well no duh, oh mighty-"

"Jade!"

the seeker mock-pouted. "Oh, all right. Fine. I'm just trying to lighten the mood. Geesh!" the seeker rolled her (his?) optics and followed the silver mech into the shadows...

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Endnotes: Okay, it's official. Jade is a ham. LOL. She was totally hamming it up in my headspace on this. Just as soon as she came out of the repair-room in the mountainbase, she started strutting like Ladystarscream. (...of course it doesn't help she's based off my presonality, and my penname just happens to be LadyStarscream *eyeroll*. whatever.

More coming soon!


	7. Chapter 7

It wasn't long before the duo arrived at the given coordinates, and Bullet mentally crossed his fingers as her typed in the doorcode. No alarms or anything, the door just slid open. "Well, so far so good." Bullet mused. Jade followed him. "So, which room is it again?"

"214. According to my information, it's down that hall and to the left."

The silver Megatron lookalike nodded, indicating a hallway a few corridors down that crossed the one they were on. The Starscream lookalike nodded and followed. "I just hope Shockwave doesn't get any smart ideas while we're here." she replied.

"Why, bad feeling?" Bullet asked. Scythe, their leader, had told them that the first indication anything was wrong was allways a bad feeling. And not just the apprehension kind. And that if they started getting any really bad feelings, they should wait and try to find another way to get to the personality components stored inside the building. "Here it is, the 200 section." Jade pointed. They turned right. "Nope, the numbers are getting smaller." Jade pointed out. Bullet frowned. They turned around and went the other way. "There! 214!" Jade pointed. Bullet hurried up to the door and typed in the code, looking up and down the corridor as he waited for the electronic lock to process the code.

The door clicked, and the lock beeped. "Wait, don't tell me. The code didn't work, did it?" Jade asked. Bullet groaned. P"Well what're we gonna do now?" Jade asked. Bullet eyed the lock for a long moment, thinking about how to get it open. "I have an idea." he fished around in one subspace pocket for a minute, and brought out a length of wire. "You're kidding, right?" Jade stopped when he gave her a look. She shut up and let him bend around on it for a moment. "And, if this doesn't work." he mused. "We can allways blast down the door and get the components and run." P  
Jade gave him a quizzical look.

"I'm carrying a few explosives in my subspace compartments, just in case." Bullet informed her.

"Oh." Jade didn't feel like asking him how stupid she thought that was. She wasn't sure how stable homemade C4 (or C6, as Bullet referred to it, she wasn't sure of the difference) was. What if the explosives had gotten jostled or energised by the spacebridge and exploded, hmm? then what? She simply glanced up and down the corridor, hoping this would work, and wishing it wouldn't take so long.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Megatron sleepily rolled over and glared at the blinking dot next to his recharge berth. THe comm transmitter indicator blinked orange lazily. He tried to think of what could possibly be happening right now that could be so important. Had Skywarp shoved Rumble down a garbage disposal chute again? He growled/half-groaned at the memory and rubbed a black hand over his face. He didn't want to have to deal with this right now. He pressed the button to switch it on. "Megatron here."

"Hail, Megatron. Leader of the Decepticons." Megatron blinked, his tiredness fading. If Shockwave was calling, it was probably urgent. He blinked and dragged himself onto his feet, plodding over to his desk. He sat and switch on the viewscreen. "Yes, Shockwave, what is it?"

"Uh..."

"Well, speak up! don't just stand there." Megatron was trying not to let his annoyance show. But maybe it wasn't the middle of the night on Cybertron. He kept forgetting there was a time difference.

"I thought you were on Cybertron." Shockwave sounded confused.

"Wha-Shockwave, What on Cybertron are you going on about? I'm right here. And still on Earth." Megatron had a feeling something was wrong. Very wrong. And he discovered he was right, too, as Shockwave began to explain...

0-0-0-0-0-

"Almost got it..." Bullet wiggled the two lengths of wire in the lock. "Got it." the door slid open. The two crept stealthily into the room, which was filled from wall to ceiling on every wall but that of the door with drawers, all marked with letters and numbers. Jade whistled. "Wouldya look at that!" she breathed.

"Which one is it, again?" Bullet asked. Jade sighed. "That one." she pointed to said drawer, and Bullet went over to the appropriate drawer and pulled. "Locked!" he hissed.

"huh?" Jade went over to stand next to him. "But they didn't say anything about it being locked!" she whispered. Bullet tried again. "I know." he half-whispered back.

"So what now?" Jade whispered loudly.

"I don't know." Bullet gave the drawer another pull then glanced at Jade. "Why are we whispering?" he asked in a half-whisper.

"I don't know. It just seemed appropriate since we're sneaking around inside the Decepticons's headquarters, in their mind-prison facility." Jade whispered back.

Bullet opticrolled. "So, any ideas?" he asked, this time using a normal voice. Jade shrugged and made a motion with both hands like "Haven't got a clue." Bullet frowned.

Jade rolled her optics and aimed her armcannon. One small bolt of energy, and the lock was melted. The femmeseeker quickly pulled the drawer open and grabbed the glowing box from within. "Lets..."

The ear-splitting alarm cut off her words, and the two cursed. "Let's go! Bullet yelled, and the two ran out and down the hall.

"There they are!" Shockwave appeared behind them.

"ohcrapohcorapohCRAP!" Jade skidded around a corner, and Bullet transformed to gunmode to blast two centurion drones in front of them. "Which way!" Jade shrieked above the alarms

"Uh... That way!" Bullet yelled, his voice slightly muffled since he was still in gun mode. The femmejet skidded left, down a stairs, and out into the city.

Five more drones swept down from overhead, firing as they went. The ground beneath the two exploded, and they fell, down into the city's depths. Jade transformed to jet mode, trying to start her engines as she fell. Bullet, safe in her cockpit, directed her under an overpass-like structure, where the jet landed and transformed, taking the gun out of her cockpit.

He transformed. "Well, where to now?" she asked, trying to ignore the sound of her fuel pump pounding loudly in her audios. Bullet looked around. "I don't know... I think we're lost."

"Psst! over here!" a voice whispered.

"Huh?"

"This way!" the voice called. Curious, the two followed the sound, down into a small indention, which looked like a hole, but as they went deeper, they realised it was steps, going further down into the planet.

"Shh. They are looking for you." the voice cautioned.

Sure enough, a trio of pyramid-shaped seekers flew overhead.

"Come, follow me." the voice beckoned.

They could make out the shadowy form in the dim light, now. Bullet and Jade looked at each other, but neither knew if it was a trap or not. Razer and Dusk had said the Kintaari had allies on Cybertron. Perhaps this mech was one of them.


	8. Chapter 8

Jade and Bullet gave each other a glance as they folowed the mech down another step of stairs and into a darkened tunnelway. "Watch your step." the mech warned. Bullet made a startled sound as his foot hit the bottom step and slid. Jade caught his arm. The mech turned to look at them, then continued on.

"Shh." the mech held up a hand. After a moment, he said "Okay." and they continued on through the tunnels. Jade noted as they walked that the tunnels were getting lighter. Dim lights lined each side of the tunnel, at the floor, casting long shadows as they walked. "How do we know he's not a Decepticon?" Jade whispered to Bullet, who shrugged.

"I am not a Decepticon. I am a member of the group known as the Kinta'ari." the mech responded. He suddenly stopped, and Jade and Bullet nearly careened into him in the near-darkness. They had arrived at a dead end. A wall with an arch-shaped indention in it. (Like many of the other walls in this... place). Jade scrunched up her face, listening to the distant sound of water (or something, it didn't have to be water, she noted) dripping. "We're in the sewer, aren't we?" she asked, disdain clearly coloring her voice. Their 'guide' merely shrugged. "If you wish to call it that, since the conditions are similar to your Earth's see-wors." he tried to pronounce the alien word correctly.

The mech turned to them, yellow optics blinking in the darkness. "Whatever happens, don't try to pull out any weapons, and don't run." he said. "Huh?" Bullet looked confused. Till something moved in the shadows behind him. Actually two things, and they came right out of the shadows. Two totally black fliers, with optic and vocaliser coverings. "Sh' ta klen-da?" the first one said to the second one, pulling out a long, curved wicked-looking knife. The small mech simply folded his arms. "No klu'tan ke'vennot ti'quo." The mech looked at his companion and frowned behind his vocoder mask. "utsaan." he put the blade away.

"Don't mind the shadowgaurds." the small mech waved a hand in the air vaguely. "They're just here to keep out the riffraff and stuff." Jade perked an optic ridge at the closest one. He scooted in a hair closer. She backed up, bumping into Bullet. "oops, sorry." she whispered to him. The small mech, who they still couldn't see very well, went to the wall of the dead end and rapped out a code. There was a grinding noise and it slid back, revealing a set of stairs. Bullet glanced behind them before following their guide through the doorway, and noticed the two fliers had dissapeared back into the shadows of the corridor.

once they were down the steps, the door (or wall, whichever it was) slid back into place with a dull-sounding thud. Once they got down the steps, however, the hallway they entered was well, lit. The small mech, they could now see he was yellow in color, with teal blue sidepanels. Jade wondered what crapyard those had come from. Then again, none of the mechs she had seem were in very good condition. The little mech looked like the blue plates were doors of some kind, but she wasn't about to ask. They hurried down a hall and into a small room where the remains of a pressure-tube transit system ran. He keyed in the code and a car swooshed out of where the tube dissapeared into the wall. It slid to a stop, and the top sprang open. "Come on." the little mech hopped into the front seat. Jade gave Bullet a very nervous look. The mech had red optics. She knew that meant a Decepticon. For all they knew, he could be leading them into a well-planned trap. But both jade and Bullet wondered why a decepticon would save them from the wrath of the persuing seekers on the surface just to lead them into a trap underground. Bullet got in first, Jade following after nervously. "Hang onto your driveshafts." the mech chirped. The lid of the car snapped shut, inches from the top of Bullet's helmet. He scooted down in his seat. The tube's lid shut, and the rest of the tunnels were a blur.

About ten minutes later, after having gone vertical, on an angle, and Bullet suspected upside-down, even, the car slid to a halt. The lids popped open and the mech hopped out. Instead of wearing the same smile he was earlier, his face was one of pure business, without a hint of happiness. All serious. Jade frowned. Bullet's hand closed around his percussion rifle in his subspace pocket, just in case. The bulky mech at the door stood at attention. "welcome back." he said, optics never straying from straight in front of him. The black mech had red armor seams, and orangish yellow optics. The little yellow mech nodded. "Uh-huh. So how about you let us in?" he folded his arms. The taller mech glanced at him. "Let me call in and check to make sure." he gave Bullet and Jade a dubious glance.

He hit the comm switch. "Cable is back with our visitors." he rumbled, deep voice echoing in the cavern. "Excellent." a smoothe tenor answered. "Let them in." The mech said, and the comm switched off. The red mech grumbled then keyed in the code for the door. The pair heard the sound of a deadbolt sliding back, and the door swung open. Cable, Jade had heard him called, didn't wait for the two to go first. He walked right in and down the pristine white hallway.

Halfway down, a short tank-type with a mottled green, tan, and black paint job stood across from a black and purple seekerfemme. "Where were you?" the mech grunted. Cable shrugged. "Had to go looking for 'em. They got lost." The femme shook her head and snorted. "Figures. Earth-bots can't find their own drive shafts with..." her sentence died when she saw the look Bullet was giving her. "Never mind. Orbit is waiting for you."

Cable nodded and the three passed. At the end of the hall, the door swung open, held by another tank, but this one with four large tires instead of treads. "Heya mucker, we still on for that game of cards later?" Cable grinned. The mech in question made a coughing noise behind his vocoder mask. Cable glanced over. "Oh, right." he ducked his head. The stout silver mech in the middle of the large room gave him a halfway glare. "Nevermind."

The door shut and Bullet glanced around. The room was at least two stories in height, with a walkway all the way around the edge, and stairs coming down from the back of the room. He suspected there were more rooms there than just what he could see, the open areas on the right side. Jade, meanwhile, was trying to figure out what the lead-colored mech in front of them turned into. He didn't have any seeable alt. mode. He looked old. And by old, she meant Alpha Trion. Well, not that ancient, but still, not as young as the other mechs running around the place. A small aqua colored femme came up, a tan and yellow mech next to her. The mech's armor was tan in the middle, lined with a cream colored stripe on either side and yellow on his sides, kind of in an hourglass shape. "we will take care of our friend." the femme said politely. "Uh.. right." Jade motioned to Bullet, who pulled out the glowing blue box and handed it to the mech. Both silently walked away.

"Ah, so glad you made it in safely." a black flier with a blue optic band walked in. "Thank you Cable, you can go now." he made a shooing motion with one hand. The minispy glared, but went. He stopped halfway to the door. "Hey, you're going with us later, right Gunlock?" he asked. The flier simply turned to give him a silent look. Cable glanced at Jade and Bullet, nodded shortly, and dissapeared out the door, as if understanding the flier was trying to say "Don't discuss it in front of the visitors."  
Up close, Bullet could see the mech was actually dark blue, dark green, and black colored, with a camoflauge print to it. Or maybe it was how the light reflected on his armor. He couldn't be sure. The flier folded his arms. "Well?" he asked.

"Well what?" Bullet relplied patiently.

"How did you get into the prison and get out of it with that." he pointed to the next room.

Bullet shrugged. "We impersonated Megatron and Starscream, so nobody asked who we were." he said.

"Well I can *see* that." the mech snorted. "How did you get out without tripping any alarms?" Before Bullet could reply, Jade cut in with "We couldn't." She recieved a look from Bullet for it. "What my friend is trying to say is that we barely escaped, but your friend... Cable, showed us the way underground, to safety."

The flier nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer.

A light on his wrist blinked and something beeped. "I'm being paged." he stated, and turned on his heel. Jade watched him leave.

"Is it just me, or did he feel...creepy to you, too?" she asked, eyeing the leaving form. Bullet shrugged. "I think it was just you." He took a couple steps to look around. "This place is huge." he looked up at the upperstory. Jade nodded. "Yeah. It's no wonder that mech led us here, they can probably put whoever that was we rescued back in a chassis real quick." Bullet smiled slightly. "Yeah, I don't think it's that easy, though. You know a personality component is kind of like a person's soul." he looked back at her. "There's no telling how long it'll take." he watched another mech hurry past. "But if Backdraft knows how we can get everyone home, it'll be worth it." he turned back to face her. She nodded. "Right." And they waited for someone to come tell them what was going on, or for the base commander, like they had been told in the hallway.

"I am NOT going to that pathetic, pitiful, rodent-infested mud ball of a planet!" a deep, gravelly voice declared. Bullet and Jade lookedover at the seeker that walked in. He was primarily gloss black in color, with blinding orange, red, ash grey mixed in. His tailfins (on his ankles) were decorated with flame decals, as were his heel thrusters. While his legs were as black as his forearms, his toes and knee gaurds were bright red. The nosecone (of his jet mode) was decorated with a sharp-toothed... Well, it kind of looked like a shark. While his chest and upper torso armor were black, his intakes were ash grey. The same color as his vocoder mask. His dark red visor, coincidentally the same shape as Razor's, was framed by his black helmet.

Jade quirked an optic ridge at the tiny orange stripes circling the seekermech's antennae, which faded to red where they were attatched to his helmet. "Kind of like a wasp." she thought with amusement. Which all amusement fled when the mech snarled "What're you looking at! Haven't you ever seen a seeker before!" She looked away. The mech sneered Don't need some half-byte glitch gawking at me like I'm some kind of energon goodie." Bullet gave him a look, but let it go.

"Actually, Backdraft," a smooth voice sounded from the doorway, "I believe you should be thanking Jade and Bullet for rescuing you from that Decepticon mind-prison." A short mech walked into the room. He was a light pearlescent grey in color, with metallic deep blue panels on his legs. His blue visor glowed brightly as though he were amused. And again, Jade noted the shape of his visor. "Must be common to the Kinta'ari to have that shape." she mused, glancing at Bullet. He didn't seem to notice. "Orbit." the gloss-black seeker, Backdraft, grunted in greeting with a nod. Orbit simply turned to flip on a nearby monitor.

Bullet heard Backdraft mumble "At least I had some peace and quiet till I was 'rescued'. He glanced at Orbit to see if he had heard, but the mech gave no acknowledgement of the comment. "Funny," the Megatron lookalike thought, "That kind of reminds me of something Mic would say." and shook the thouht out before it could go any further. He didn't need to be thinking (or worrying) about how they were going to get back to Earth. Not right now, at least. Right now, they had a mission to complete, and information to get.

"So, what is this place?" Jade asked, glancing around.

"This is one of our many bases underground." the mech stated.

"So, uhmm, how did you know we wren't, you know, Decepticons?" Jade shrugged, giving Bullet a glance. The grey mech didn't even spare the effort to look up from his monitor screen. "We were informed of your arrival." a smirk appeared. "even before you left Earth." Bullet made a suprised sound. Jade gave Orbit a suprised look. "You know we're from Earth?" stupid question.

"Of course." Orbit chuckled. "Where else would you be from?" he finished whatever he was doing and switched the monitor off, turning to face the pair, a light smile on his face. "Razer and Dusk sent us a message, actually." he admitted. Her glanced at Backdraft, and his smile faded. "Backdraft, a word with you." he motioned to the seeker, and headed for the doorway. "We will be back momentarily. I'm sure you two are tired, and need energon. Landspear will show you to the commisary." he motioned to a brown and green young-looking mech. Then walked out, a grumbling Backdraft following.

"Well, come on then." THe young mech waved a hand. Jade noted that he looked rather... fmailiar. Bullet nodded. "So, what did you say your name was?" "Landspear." came the reply. "Although I've been thinking about changing it to something, oh I dunno, neater?" Jade noted he didn't know what "cool" would mean, being Cyberttronian, but understood. "Oh, like what?" Bullet was trying to make light conversation.

"I don't know." the mech looked thoughtful. "Strider? Springer?" he glanced back, blue optics dancing with mirth. "I'm telling ya, I'm getting jokes up to here." he flattened a hand at about chin height, the shook his head, continuing to walk. "Then again, I don't think that would be an appropriate name. I've been wanting to get out of this stupid drill tank alt mode. Carbide said since I got the assembly, someday I could become an aerial type." another glance. "Not a seeker or anything, but a rotor-lift type. "Oh, you mean a helicopter!" Jade cut in. "uh... yeah. That." Jade blinked She *knew* he looked familiar. Especially because of that head-fin-thingy. But the green mech she was thinking of *was* a helicopter allready, and just so happened to be a member of a very specialised (and very dangerous) group of Autobots called the Wreckers.

She blinked, then whispered to Bullet "Does he look familiar to you?" Bullet glanced at the mech then looked back at Jade. "No, why?" The femme shrugged. "No reason." she looked to her left at the wall, mumbling something about Springer's evil twin. Was he trying to tell them something. She shivered at the thought of the Autobots having found the Kintaari underground. She didn't know what the Autobots would do, since the Kintaari on Earth were currently scheming for a way to get rid of them. Not to mention raiding power facilities like Decepticons.

A green femme jogged over as they entered the big commons room. "Hey, Sp-" she glanced at the group. "Spear." Jade swore inwardly. Yup, they were in trouble now. She'd know that Princes-Leia-eared-Helmet anywhere. "Hi." Jade smiled. "Fake it, fake it." she thought. Bullet, of course, was none the wiser as to what was going on. "Hi, I'm..." she glanced at Landspear. "I'm Strobe. What's your names?" she glanced at Bullet.

"Jade."

"Bullet."

the femmejet glanced around the large room, which kind of resembled a school lunchroom, with tables in the center of the room, and some energon dispenser lined up on the far wall.

"Well, come on, we should get you some energon. You guys are hungry, right?" Both nodded. The brown and green mech pulled out a swipe card.

"Well, see you later spr-" the femme shrugged it off like it was a slip of the tongue and said his name wrong. "Nice meeting you." she nodded to Bullet and Jade with a smile. Landspear watched her leave. "You know," Jade commented, "You *would* look in green." she gave him a smile.

The P.A. system came on, and Orbit's voice echoed through the large almost-empty room. "Marauder teams one and two, house of Koeleth-Nor to the main command center." Jade glaced upward, as though looking for the source of the disembodied voice. Landspear groaned, though there was no real dismay behind it. "They apparently expect me to be in two places at once." he said apologetically. He handed Jade the swipe card. "Here, I have to go. You just swipe the card and press the button for what you want." Bullet nodded. He started to walk away, but stopped and turned long enough to add "Don't lose that, now. That's the only way to you can get energy, kay?" he said.

"Kay." The two watched him walk out. Bullet looked at the card. "Well, I guess we should get something then, huh?" Jade held it out to him and he took it, going over to the first dispenser. He handed Jade the first cube then took the second one for himself, subspacing the card. Jade eyed her cube then looked at Bullet.

"What, afraid it'll bite you?" he quipped. "No." jade eyed him. "Oh, you want me to take the first sip?" he asked teasingly. "I thought one of Megatron's cronies would test his energon first, not the other way around." he teased raising it to his lips anyway. "Oh, ha-ha." Jade deadpanned, taking a drink of her own. "Hm." Bullet looked at his cube. "Takes kind of fizzy, like... Mountain Dew." he commented, tkaing another drink. After another couple swigs, Jade said "I wonder what they're up to. They called a bunch of people to the command room." she started for the door.  
"Uh, I think they wanted us to wait here for them. Or Orbit, at least." Bullet pointed out.

"Oh come on, Bullet, they're not gonna shoot us or anything if he go back." Jade gulped the last of her cube and set the empty container on the counter by the door before walking out. Bullet hurriedly finished his cube and set it next to hers before jogging to catch up. "Heyt, wait up!" she paused a moment, and the two continued on towards the command center, which they'd just came from a few minutes ago.

((And no, Landspear isn't Springer, I don't think. hee. I kind of wanted him to be his own person. Maybe younger sibling or something.  
I got caught up in the moment, and the buny bit and wouldn't let go. Even if the bots did discover the Kintaari, they wouldn't do anything to hurt them. Not after having seen the city and knowing how many neutrals are taking refuge there.

Oh, and yes, by the way, that WAS Arcee. *evil-sounding cackle* She'seasy to spot, even with an alternate paint job. XD. I have no idea why she'd be there. I heard somewhere (watching season 3 of G1) that Arcee is Springer's protogee of sorts. They're really close. Not neccesarily romantically, either. I got more of the feeling their relationship was plutonic, or like a brother/sister thing.

Sorry, I'm rambling. More soon.

Oh, P.S. I didn't remember Bullet and Jade's guide being Cable. Heeee! This chapter on were written after the RP series, so the Marauders (Driveby's team) were allready established. It was a great deal of fun for me to go back and write what the Marauders were like before the RP series. Needless to say, they've changed. Snerk. and there were two teams instead of one. But you'll read about that either in the next chapter or the one after that. One or two of the people in Driveby's Marauders came from the other Marauder team. why? just... because. It'll be ficced later.


	9. Chapter 9

Prowl rapped his fingers against Teletraan-1's console impatiently. He and HighRoad had been running the names and descriptions of the people listed on the datapad Wyldkat had given them through the Cybertronian populace database via Teletraan-1. The computer finally made a noise, and he looked up. HighRoad glanced at him before the computer spoke.

"There are no known cybertronians registered in the populational database of Cybertron by those designations." it reported. Prowl gave the Prime-imitator a suprised look. "How can that be?" he queried. The computer blipped. "Unknown. However, a trans-spacial anomoly has been detectede at coordinated four zero-two-one-seven."

Now it was High Road's turn to be suprised. "Details." he stated. The computer screen flipped thorugh some calculations, then brought up a visual of the terrain. And a round circle of metal. Teletraan-1 automatically zoomed in on it. THere was Megatron, along with Starscream and his trine. "Megatron." High Road frowned behind his mask.

He flipped on the comm. "Ironhide, Trailbreaker, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, meet me in the command room." a chorus of "Yes, sir" was heard, and Prowl turned to him, leaning slightly against the giant computer. "Are you sure it is wise to go out and fight Megatron when we could just contact the real Optimus Prime?" he asked, still halfway-glaring (thanks to HighRoad misleading him in Prime's office). The Prime-mimic turned to him. "And let everyone including Megatron know I'm not Prime? that would just cause more confusion." the crimson and blue mech replied. Prowl couldn't find any fault with his logic, except possibly HighRoad going to fight Megatron and being deactivated. That would be very bad.

Before he could voice any further concern, tohugh, the assigned group jogged into the room. "Ready to go, Prime!" sunstreaker Transformed, revving his engine. He was closely followed by his red twin, Sideswipe.

"Then let's transform and roll out." HighRoad transformed as Trailbreaker and Ironhide did, Prowl following after the group.

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Wyldkat looked down at her energon cube. It was time for her to leave, but she didn't want to. "Hey, Kat, wassup?" The car glanced up. "Oh, hey Jazz. Nothing much. Just thinking about the group." the Porsche nodded and sat across from the femme. "I dig. Ya can't decide whether ta go back to them or stay here, right?" Her head shot up. He grinned, chuckling softly. "It ain't hard ta tell. Ya can't get them ta come over here an join us?" he asked, to which the femme shook her head. "No, it's more complicated than that. I can't explain it right now." she waved a hand "But there's things that have to... get done first." he tilted his head at the unusual statement, but decided not to pry. If he wanted to, all he really had to do was pour on some of the good old charm, but he knew she probably wouldn't tell him anyway, and would probably just get annoyed with him. Strange, Wyldkat had allways seemed somewhat "Immune" to his 'Jazzy charm', as he put it. "Okay, so, is there something ya *do* wanna talk about?"

She glanced up at his cheesy grin and chuckled. "maybe your choice in music. Here." she pulled out the datapad he'd loaned her with some music on it. "No wha's wrong with ma choice in music? I got some good tuneage there." he pointed to the datapad before taking it from her. "Seriously? you call Vanilla Ice good music?"

He laughed. "All right, all right." he subspaced it. "But ey, at least I aint puttin really cheesy stuff on there, like the Macarena an' stuff." he winked. the blue carfemme giggled. "Yeah. right." she smirked around her cube as she drained it. "I gotta go." she set the empty cube on the table. "I'll be back again as soon as I can, though." she stood. "Thanks for the music." she waved over her shoulder. "Later!" Jazz called, giving her a wide grin. "Peace out, babe!" he waved, and she was gone.

The blue Plymouth Reliant sped out of the ark and towards home. She wished she could visit the Ark more, and be with her friends more. She rounded a corner so deep in thought that she almost didn't see Scythe standing there. She skidded to a top, transforming as she did. "Scythe. Hello." she couldn't think of what else to say. He simply eyed her.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"uh... tell you what?" she tried to look innocent. His expression was neutral, however. No anger was in his expression, nor his voice.

"Do not lie to me, Wyldkat. I know where you were.

"Oh really? do the fliers know?" The carfemme carefully weighed her options. She could either lie to him and possibly incur his wrath, if he had seen her leaving the Ark, or tell him the truth. Well, some of it. "No, they did not see you leaving." his gaze never faltered.

"Oh, that's good." she glanced at a nearby rock, noticing the tiny ants crawling along it's surface. She knew she was trying to buy time, so she could figure out what to say. "Have you been friends with the Autobots for very long?" he asked, voice genial. Like commenting on the weather. "No." she opticshifted to look at him, then sighed.

"Kinda." She didn't want to say how long, because then Scythe would know she was here before his group. In a way, she thought, that wouldn't be bad. Scythe would want to kow if anyone from that group could help them get home, and possibly get them to ally with the Autobots. But, again, confrontations would not help. And Razer and Dusk would not let them go that easily. Since Bullet and Jade were still on Cybertron, it was likely, she assumed, that Razer and Dusk would have their allies capture the two. There was no just walking out. It would never be that simple. "I... met one of them, on a drive a few days ago." she folded her arms. "He was... nice. He didn't ask questions."

Scythe raised a single optic ridge, as though telling her to go on. "His name's Wheeljack. He's kind of an inventor. I though," she swallowed. She knew Scythe could easily detect any lie. It was uncanny, really. She just hoped he wouldn't, just this once. "I was thinking that if I became friends with him, that he might... share some of his ideas with me. He has allready." she looked hopeful. The green dragon nodded. "And have you told him anything about our group?" he asked.

"Nope." Wyldkat inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. And that last question was answered truthfully. She hadn't told Wheeljack, specifically.

"Have you met their leader yet?" She hadn't seen that one coming."uh... no. Can't say I have." she made a show of pretending to think back to try to figure out what he looked like. "I met Wheeljack's other friend, the ambulance? I think his name's Wrench, or something like that." she blinked. She never could remember the mech's name. She had only met him once. Ususally, getting to know someone's name required spending time around them. And thankfully she hadn't been in the repairbay enough to learn his name. She was glad for that, in a way.

Scythe simply nodded, flicking his scaled greenish-hued wings minutely. "Allright." he nodded. Wyldkat nodded back and started to make her way past. "Oh, Wyldkat?" he called after her. She turned.

"Yes?"

"Do you know them well enough to get into their base without him with you?"

She had to stop and think about that. It could mean so many things, knowing Scythe. Anything from "Could you get him to help you get in" to "Have you been in their ship much and are you secretly on their side."

"I don't know, why?" she tilted her head slightly.

"Because, it would be *very* helpful to us if you could get into their base, and spy on them for us."

"Ah." she nodded, thinking about it. "I could talk to wheeljack, and see what he'd say. I don't want any... misunderstandings." she smiled, implying that Scythe and friends might have to rescue her if such an event occurred.

Scythe nodded, a small smile gracing his features. "That would be... very good. Thank you." he nodded. Wyldkat nodded back. "No problem. When do you want me to comm him?"  
Scythe blinked, inwrdly suspicious. "You have his comm frequency?"

"Well, yeah. He gave it to me so we could talk, or meet when we're out, or whatever." it seemed to make sense. Scythe flicked his wings again. "Whenever you're comfortable with, I suppose." he said. She nodded. "Well, I just left, so I suppose I could call him in a little bit and ask. I don't want to seem over eager to go back."

"All right then, whenver you want." Scythe had that flippant tone again. He walked away. "See you back at base." Wyldkat transformed and headed for the mountainbase. This was going better than she'd expected!

Scythe's gaze focused on the horizon, watching a flock of birds circling the nearby forest. After a moment he transformed and leapt into the air, heading for the base as well.

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Endnotes: Sorry for the short chapter. The next one will probably be short as well, but I'll try to make future chapters longer.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: and now, back to Cybertron, where our pair of Megatron and starscream impersonators take a gour of an underground city.

And the introduction ofthe two Marauder teams. Hope you enjoy!

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When Jade and Bullet entered the command room, one group of six bots were on the left, one in the back, kind of at the center, and one on the right, each checking his gun, ammunition, and other armorment. A white car-type with a face mask glanced over, bright blue optics narrowing in suspicion. The groups on the left and back whipped out their weapons, or aimed the ones allready out at the two. "Uh, whoops." Bullet noted. Jade eeped softly. "I think we walked right into a bunch of people all keyed up and about to go on a mission." she near-whispered, forgetting her voice still sounded like Starscream.

To the right, the tall flier they had met earlier gave the white and pink-accented hovercar with a facemask a glance. "It's okay, they're the two mechs from Earth Orbit mentioned." he waved a hand.

"Are you sure?" the white cartype replied, her rifle still aimed at the pair. Jade stood stock-still, trying to ignore the pin-point of a red laser sight trained on her forehead crest. "Yup, positive." the flier smirked. The other group, painted in camoflauge, apparently the other Marauder group, slowly lowered their rifles. They looked at the first group, then glanced at the back of the room where the other group, a quad of all-black mechs with red visors stood. Well, except for Backdraft, who stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. Landspear was sporting some kind of spray-on black paint, and a semi-clear red optic covering. Those were the only two she could identify out of the four.

The three seekers, which included Backdraft, were bulkier then the rest. Jade could only imagine what their mission was. She opticshifted to glance at Backdraft, standing next to the other two, wondering if they were a trine. She didn't have the chance to look at their wingstripes and find out, though. About that time, Orbit walked in, (thankfully to their rescue.) "Jade, Bullet. I see you're back." he paused a nanoclick to glance at the mechs aiming guns at them. "I thought you were in the commisary?" he tilted his angular head slightly. Bullet shrugged. "We heard your announcement, and, well, umm," he glanced at Jade. He didn't want to say they had been curious, but he was just slightly. He didn't want to appear nosy, though either. Jade caught his look. "I was curious. Sorry about that." she looked at the floor.

Orbit shrugged. "No matter. I was going to call you anyway." at the pair's curious expressions, added "It is time for you to return home."  
"With all due respect," Bullet said "How are we gonna get past Shockwave again? I mean, our disguises might have worked the first time, but I don't think they'll work again." The short silvery mech nodded. "And that is why we have two Marauder groups and the house of Koeleth-Nor to go along. They can get you past the security measures and back across the spacebridge." he nodded to the groups, who continued their weapons checks. Though not without casting a few untrusting looks in Jade and Bullet's direction.

Jade looked around the two groups. She allready knew who Backdraft and Landspear were. She eyed the other two black fliers. Both were prettymuch identical, but one had red wingstripes, and the other had orange ones. Across the room, the White femme (huh?), Driveby, was checking her pulse rifle before subspacing it. Next to her, a short tank mech with camoflauge armor was checking his rifle before putting it back together. He glanced at the shorter flier next to him. The little light grey flier looked like he might turn into some Cybertronian version of a spy plane. The M-Q1 Predator sprung to mind, but Jade shoved it away. These people were cybertronians. They probably had no clue what earth vehicles would look like.

Anyway, the little flier's wings were kind of in an x-shape on his back. "Like a biplane might transform." Jade thought with amusement, shoving away the image of the red baron as a transformer. He had a light blue visor that she could make out his optics through, which were also blue. He turned and nudged the little yellow cartype next to him, handed him a set of grenades. "Thanks Beacon." the little red-opticed carmech nodded.

Jade's optics widened slightly. A Decepticon? Well, Razer and Dusk had said something about those who didn't want to take sides. Maybe the little mech was a deserter? She could only imagine what Megatron would do if he found the mech. Jade also raised an optic ridge at the little hovercar's sidepanels, which were a tealish blue color. He glanced over at her and grinned before going back to checking his small pile of boxes. He looked through each one, ticked off it's contents on his fingers, then moved on to the next one.

"Yo, Gunlock, ya want your sniper-GT back?" The flier's attention snapped to the little camo tank who has said that. "I guess that means yes?" he made like he weas about to toss it. "CAP!" the dark colored seeker yelled in alarms. The tank, Cap, chuckled. "Just kidding. Geez. Don't have a fuel pump attack!"

Jade snickered at him. Gunlock, the black flier, glared vehemently as he walked over to snatch his beloved weapon from his temmate's grasp. "That is a *very* sensitive and accurate peice of weaponry. If you toss it, it could throw the scope all out of alignment." he griped, holding it up to look through the scope. "Great, now I'm going to have to totally recalibrate it." to which Cap, who had turned around, started mocking him, hands moving to emphasize. He ended it with shaking his head and rolling his optics." Cable saw and chuckled. "Ya better watch out, Cap. He might shoot ya in the back and make like it was the cons!" he warned, but in a joking tone.

Driveby paused to look at the tank and yellow car (cap and Cable), then glanced at the flier, Gunlock, before going back to he own work.

Across the room, the other team were talking in hushed voices. "...I mean, just who do they think they are to come walking in here like they own the place." a purple and black flier femme said in a stuck-up voice. "And now we have to cover their skidplates and help them get back to earth? We didn't help to get them here. Why should be put our lives on the line for them? why are *they* so special?" she cast a sidelong glance at Jade and Bullet.

"I know what you mean, Sheique, but we still have to do our job. Orbit is our leader for a reason, and he knows what he's doing." the mech next to her replied. He was a tank type also, but it looked like he had four wheels and a high-set chassis in his alt. mode. "Enough!" their leader, a silver mech who's slim chassis almost reminded Jade of a Plymouth Prowler barked. Optics forward!" the two went back to their word. "sorry Stopstreet." the (mudromper?) tank mumbled.

A jeep-type looked over at the pair of Decepticon imitators (Jade and Bullet), and nudged the flier next to him. "Hey, Breaker."

"hmm?"

"Check it out. What d'you think a' the newbies?" he whispered.

"I dunno. they appear to have alternative modes which Imitate the Decepticon commander and sub commander." his azure gaze moved to the pair. "But external impressions can be misleading, undoubtedly." he looked back at the jeep-mech. "What is your summary asessment, tracker?"

the mech blinked. "uh... could you repeat that in plain cybertronain?" The seeker chuckled. "I merely was inquiring upon your first impressions of our visitors."

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Endnotes: Yeah, another short chapter, sorry about that. My muse ran away halfway through it.

Anyway, here goes the notes: Yes, Cable was a decepticon at one time. And yes, Breaker is sometimes a braniac. (He talks like Perceptor sometimes.) That's partially why he and Tracker go together so well. Tracker's kind of a numbskull (dumb) sometimes.

...well, I think that does it for the endnotes. More later!


	11. Chapter 11

Jade glanced around at the twelve mechs present, not counting herself and Bullet, then asked what she knew Bulllet was probably allready thinking. "Uhm, won't it, uh, be a bit..." she tried to ignore the glare a certain black and purple femmeseeker was leveling in her direction. "Well, a bit... obvious what we're doing, if we just go rushing in there with a bunch of people?"

At this point, said femmeseeker cut her off with "Why don't you just say it, you think it would be dangerous and we're not good enoough to protect you." She spat. "Sheique." the silver mech a few feet from her warned. He apparently was the commander of the group she was a part of.

"I don't think..." Jade looked away from where the femme had a challenging look like "go ahead, call me a liar and I'll take your head off." look. Jade glanced at Bullet. "I'm not saying you're not skilled, I just think Shockwave might be expecting us to come back, and could be waiting for us with an army of his drones or something." she shrugged. Yes, they were guests here, and she figured this group was probably quite skilled at... whatever it was they did. But she did not want herself and Bullet to be put in danger by going and doing something really really stupid like running into a base full of Decepticons who were *excpecting them*.

Orbit simply glanced at his two teams, then back at the pair. "I understand your concerns.." he spared Sheique, the femmeseeker a cursory glance when she huffed indignantly, then continued "However, We have two of our most specialised teams, as well as the house of koeleth-nor." he motioned to Landspear, who replied with an affable grin and a small wave. Backdraft rolled his optics. Bullet glanced over at them"Specialised in what, though?"

Orbit simply chuckled softly. "In infiltration and sabotage and the such." he looked towards the two groups. "The Marauders. Team one." the white and pink femmecar saluted, and the rest of her team simply stood at attention silently. "And," he motioned to the silver car "Team two." The silver mech saluted crisply "Sir!" Orbit turned back to them. "So you see, you are in good hands. Our intention is not to go barging into Shockwave's tower by force, but to sneak in. The house of Koeleth-Nor will be right behind you to... clean up, should there be any kind of trouble, and to provide a distraction, should the need for one arise." The pair nodded. "I see." Bullet mused.

Orbit turned and nodded. "It is time for us to move." A chorus of "Yes sir!"s sounded in reply. The sivler car, Stopstreet, turned to his team. "Marauders, move out!" the group transformed and started their engines. Driveby transformed "Marauder team one, we are the lead. Be aware and stay close." a chorus of "Yes Sir!" sounded from behind her. "Move out!" The group took the lead, pausing as Jade transformed and Bullet transformed, settling into her cockit.

Jade tried to stay low, almost letting herself be startled as Backdraft and his fellow fliers swooped in near-soundlessly.

"The tower is a few megamiles away. We'll settle into a building a little ways from there we have set up as a lookout point," Driveby radioed, "and use it as a temporary base." "Okay." Jade radioed back. A few long minutes they had arrived, and Jade let Bullet out before transforming and landing. Driveby silently put a finger to her lips in a signal to be quiet, then motioned to the other marauder team and made a hand motion. She then pointed to the seekers and made a circling motion. _"Aerial recon."_ Jade thought.

The other marauder team quietly crept around the building, radioing one another that the area was clear. Driveby nodded to her team, who hefted their weapons and crept inside. The front room was pitch-black and a laayer of fine metal dust covered everything. Jade eeped as her foot hit something, and Bullet caught her arm, giving her a reassuring look. It was just a bit of flooring that had come loose and was sticking up.

The tank-mech came back in the room. Jade remembered his name was Cap. "We're all clear here, sir." he saluted. Driveby nodded. The smaller car that Jade recognised as Cable came back in. He handed out small luminescent bars. "Here, these are for lighting. Don't wanter off to far. Empties might be around. They like to grab people and drag em into the understory, suck the fuel right out of em." At first Jade thought he was joking, but there was no humor in his tone. And he wasn't smiling, either.

Once the other Marauder team came in, Driveby nodded and glanced all around. "Currently, we are waiting on a signal from our agents inside shockwave's tower. Once we get the green light, we will sneak in and activate the spacebridge." She nodded to Bullet and Jade. "Cable," she looked at the little yellow car with teal sidepanels. "I want you on surveilance of the communication frequencies. If Shockwave even calls for a drone, I want to know about it." The little carbot nodded. "Yes Ma'am."

"Beacon, I want you topside with the others, aerial recon." The little grey jet opened his mouth, but she held up a hand. "I know they don't like you very much, but we have to work cohesively as a team if we want this to work. If they hurass you, let me know about it later and we'll work things out." The little jet nodded, sounding less-than-enthused. "Yes ma'am."

"Cap?" The little tank appeared from the shadows. "Yes ma'am."  
"I want you to be ready for any... uninvited guests. Keep your vibration sensors on maximum." he nodded. "I have the perfect suprise." he glanced at Jade and Bullet. "Mind if I set a few... booby traps on the way in?" he asked, a dark smile making itself evident. Driveby frowned behind her vocoder mask. "Just make sure none of our troops get caught in them on the way out." The tank bowed slightly. "Have I ever done something so novice?" he didn't wait for an answer. "Don't worry. I'll make sure my bombs only stick to Decepticons." he added with a dark chuckle.

"Gunlock?" Said jet appeared out of practically nowhere (actually the shadows) directly behind Jade. The jet smothered a shriek of suprise, earning a very evil-looking grin from the black colored jet. "You called for me, ma'am?" he said politely, giving Jade an amused glance. Driveby didn't look as enthused, however. "Still trying for that position as one of the shadowgaurds, I see." she noted. The dark colored seeker bowed respectfully. "Ever hopefull, commander." he stated, tone slightly amused. Driveby resisted the urge to roll her optics, instead flatly relpyling "I see." before continuing. "I hope you won't have any problems flying up above with Koeleth-Nor and looking out for Beacon, then."

Gunlock, the black colored jet, gave the smaller blue-visored grey mech (Beacon) a clearly distainful look, but nodded. "As you command." he said simply. Driveby watched him melt back into the shadows. Sometimes that one scared her. And not because of his skills of blending into the shadows, either. She knew his past, or, at least, parts of it. And she knew his mentality. She just hoped he would stay as loyal as the rest of her team. She shoved the thought aside, focusing instead on the current situation. "Stopstreet." The silver mech saluted. "As the leader of Marauder team one, you realise my command has precedence here?"

"Yes, sir." the silver carmech replied. His dark green optics never wavered from looking straight ahead. "Good, I wanted to make that clear. However, in the even that our teams should be seperated, I will not hold it against you to lead your team in whatever way is necessary to complete this mission. "Yes sir." he turned to his team. "You heard her. Follow her orders as you would mine."

A soft chorus of "Yes sir" sounded in reply.

Driveby looked at the purple flier femme, Sheique. "Sheique, I want you to stay with us. We may need your... unique skills." the femme nodded silently, then glanced at Bullet and Jade like he wanted to argue, but didn't. "Mucker, tracker, you're with us." said mechs nodded. Landspear walked in and nodded with a smile. Driveby looked at him. "Landspear, you'll be with us as well." He nodded.

Cable glanced at his wrist, on which a small red light was blinking. It was his comm. "Yeah." he answered. After a second, he said "Hang on." He looked at Driveby. "It's for you, boss." The femme nodded and turned away activating her comm. "Driveby here... yes...very well, we are on our way." Another second or two and she added "We will signal upon arrival. Driveby out." and she closed her comm, turnng to the others. "That was our team inside. It is time to move. We have created a false security warning in the farthest western sector of Shockwave's base. If we hurry, we can get in and activate the spacebridge before he returns."

Cap stepped up, cracking his knuckles. "Want us to give 'em a real show so they stay busy for a bit longer? I'm sure I can keep them out of your gears for a while." he grinned. Driveby shook her head. "That's a negative, cap. We don't want half the planet knowing we're here." the little tank wilted slightly at her implication (of large explosions), but just nodded. Driveby glanced at the others. "transform." Jade glanced at Bullet, then at Driveby. The femme looked at the pair. "Tracker can give you two transportation, so we can move faster. We'll need you on the ground when we get there, and it would be a waste of time for you to fly and possibly be spotted." the two nodded. "Backdraft." she commed. A grumble sounded from the other end of her comm. "You are going to meet us on the ground at the entrance to shockwave's tower, right?"

"the seeker grumbled about not wanting to go, and from the look on Driveby's faceplates, there were probably some rather... choice words miuxed in. "Razer and Dusk have requested your prescence on earth. I would assume they miss you." she threw that one in, knowing it would probably convince him. She glanced at the pair of Bullet and Jade, and they could see from the way her faceplates crinkled slightly around the edges of her optics that she was more than likely smiling at her... convincing choice of words.

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**End Notes:**

Since this is being written after the RP Series (it chronoligically takes place before it, lol.) it's a little difficult to write the Marauders before they changed. You'll see. Their personalities will change somewhat over time. Anyway, here's a few notes I've jotted down on this fic:

1. There are actually two Marauder teams. The Marauders are the Kintaari specialists. The best of the best, in each of their own fields. And, for the most part, willing to commit acts that would probably make most of the other Kinta'ari sick to their fuel tanks.

2. Yes, Cap is waaaaay too happy to "blow stuff up". A little *too* happy if you ask me, but that's just how he is. Or was... oh, whatever. (sorry, I had more written on that, but I don't want ot give it away just yet, in case you haven't read my other fiction, specifically that which references Cap's past.)

3. Cable is still afraid of everything a lot of stuff, and Gunlock suprised me by coming out of his shell a little bit in my headspace. He was actually trying to prove himself worthy of the shadowgaurds, a ruthless and merciless group of seekers who spend their lives skulking the darkened catacombs underneath cybertron. Their covered faces and darkly-colored chassis have been the last thing many a mech has seen. The shadowgaurds also protect the city and it's surrounding areas, and try to scare off any "rifraff" that may try to find their way in.

4. I didn't intend to go into such depths when I wrote the inner workings of the Kinta'ari as a group (or, at least, the military side of them. They have a small military-type group that takes care of different aspects of their protection and getting energy for them, but in reality the majority of the kintaari are neutrals, who have no idea what goes on outside the walls of their underground city.

5. The command center isn't connected directly to the Kintaari city, where most of the Kinta'ari live. It's the base for their military. The actual city houises neutrals and those looking to escape the war. The Kinta'ari are kind of particular about who they allow to join them, however. They don't let just anyone in.

I think that's it. I should have more up soon.

Questions comments and reviews are welcomed. Flames will be redirected to inferno or used by Backdraft to fry unsuspecting Decepticons. :-p


	12. Chapter 12

After a moment, Driveby switched off her comm. "Let's move out." the group transformed, and Bullet transformed, planting himself in Tracker, the Jeep's front seat in gun mode. "Uh, where am I supposed to go... just hang onto the back of you?" Jade looked down at the (smaller?) jeep. "If you want, though I'm sure there is room for you to sit." The vehicle responded. The jet nodded, climbing in. It was kind of a tight fit, but she was glad he had those... what were they called? rollbar things? between the front seats and the back for her to hold onto. And away they went, quietly driving down the dark alleyway towards the tower. Jade shivered involutarily. "What a scary place to live." she thought, wondering if this planet ever saw daylight, or if it was allways in perpetual darkness like this. She didn't really like the dark. there was no telling what could jump out at you without warning. She shook the thought out of her head.

"Okay, we're here." the jeep stopped. Bullet started to transform, but Jade grabbed him "Wait, could you... stay in gun mode?" she asked. Bullet chuckled slightly. "Why Jade, you're not nervous, are you?" "ha ha." the jetfemme deapanned. After aiming the gun to the left then the right, she held it up and tiptoed forward, audios straining against the silence to hear something, anything.

"Not to startle you or anything," Bullet's voice sounded right next to Jade's ear. "...but you could take the safety switch off." she jumped, nearly dropping the sniper rifle. "Thanks, Bullet." she ground out between gritted denta. Her finger hit the switch, and she had to force herself not to jab it forcefully. Bullet would know she was mad at him for startling her like that if she did.

The group padded silently around the side of a darkened building, down and alley, and around a second building. Jade glanced around. The Marauder teams seemed to be paying acute attention to their surroundings.

Bullet's voice sounded inches from her ear again. "Are we there yet?" Jade started and dropped the gun with a clatter. Cable whirled around as he transformed, giving both a dark-looking glare before moving off again to follow the rest of the group. Jade gave Bullet a look. "Yeah, we arrived twenty minutes ago and we've been waiting in the foyae till shockwave can call us into his office." she snarked, but then shot him a smirk so he wouldn't know she wasn't happy about beings tartled like that. Twice, in one night. She shook her head and moved forward.

Up ahead, Driveby held up a hand for everyone to stop and be quiet, and squatted down behind a large peice of rubble. She turned on her comm. "Our teammates inside the tower have reported there are ten drones between us and the spacebridge. There are security measures in place, but Cable is working on hacking them." she radioed. Bullet and Jade both nodded silently. Cable joined in the conversation with "Got it boss. the sensors are down."

"Sre you sure?"

"positive."

"Allright then. Marauders, move in." Driveby silently radioed, and started forward again. Bullet glanced around, and Jade noticed his unease when they started through the door. "what is it? what's wrong?" Jade whispered. Scythe had allways told them that if they got a bad feeling, they should pay attention to it, andthat it usually was right. "I don't know." Bullet flicked a glance left, then back at Jade.

"I something... does something feel wrong?" the seeker questioned. "no, I don't feel anything just yet." The silver Megatron mimic tiptoed in behind the rest of the group, and glanced around as they walked into the control room. Three droes lay in the middle of the floor, their chests still smoking. Gunlock, Backdraft, and another mech stood over themselves, and Gunlock looked very amused with himself. Driveby, however, did not. "i thought I told you to stay in the air with the others." driveby commented, eyeing the drones. "Of course. I apologise. I just thought I'd..." Driveby cut him off, tone sharp. "You just thought you could disobey my orders. We have others here to help us get inside, we need you to be our lookout, now go." She spoke so fast, Jade almost couldn't make out the words. Gunlock simply bowed his head slightly, as though bowing and flew up towards the top of the spacebridge shute. "and do not ever presume to question me again, Gunlock." the meaningful glare she sent him as he exited meant the unspoken words of "or you will end up like these drones."

Sheique went over to the nearest console and started typing. A light on the right side flashed and the console beeped. She smirked. She pressed a couple more buttons, then glanced at the group. The computer required a vocal authorisation code, tuned to Shockwave's voice codec. But, what the two earth-bots didn't know was the femme's "special skill". The ability to perfectly imitate the Decepticon's voice. "Authorization code shockwave, cybertron, four four zed alpha primary. Console activate." Jade and Bullet both whirled upon hearing Shockwave's voice, but found Sheique leaning against the console, smirking at them.

The console beeped, and the femme turned back to it, typing away. Driveby walked up, apparently listening to her comm radio. Tracker, the Jeep, and Mucker, the tanklike vehicle from the second marauder team walked back in. Jade eyed the drones. "Are those..." she trailed off, not sure how to ask. "They are drones." Driveby looked at the three scorched shells. "They have no life force or sparks." she looked at the seekerfemme, then tilted her head slightly. "They are not... how do you say it, alive?" Jade nodded. The computer beeped again, and Sheique turned to them. "All ready to go, all we need are a set of coordinates." she looked immensely pleased with herself.

"Driveby nodded and took a step forward, but her comm stopped her dead in her tracks. Cable's voice came through, almost loudly enough for everyone around the white carfemme to hear also "Shockwave's headed back to his tower! he's dispatched a troup of drones to arrive before he does." he half-yelled. "Calm down, Cable." driveby eyed the two earth-bots. The door swished open and Backdraft strode through. Thinking it might be more drones, Tracker and Mucker whirled and aimed their weapons at him, but then put them down once they realised who he was. "Hm. So nice to know there's a warm reception waiting for me." the black seeker groused, giving the two a mild glare, but then walked over to the spacebridge. Driveby turned away from where he stood next to Bullet and Jade, and listened to Cable. "what do we do, boss?" the car asked over the comm. Driveby singaled Stopstreet, who answered his comm.

"Stopstreet, we need you to distract Shockwave's enmvoy, they are returning to base sooner than anticipated. We only need a few minutes longer. If shockwave's convoy gets within seven cliks of this base, launch a suprise attack, and make sure the seekere get the drop on him first. Use the ground troups to distract him for approximately one hundred and two millicycles then get out of there. And make sure you can elude all of his drones."

"Yes, sir." the silver care replied and hung up the line. "Cable, keep on communications. Try to get into the communications signals between Shockwave and his drones and interrupt the command signals, send the drones in different directions if you can, do whatever you can to confuse them."

"Yes sir." cable left the conversation, and driveby turned to Sheique. "We are running low on time, sheique."

The seekerfemme types a little faster, and the door to the spacebridge slid open. Bullet looked at driveby before following Jade and Backdraft. "What about you?" Driveby smiled slightly behind her vocoder mask. "Don't worrry about us." and explosion rocked the outside of the building, but he femme's demeanor never changed. "We can take care of ourselves. May you return to your home planet safely." she bowed her head slightly.

Sheique tapped in the final sequence, and turned to the group. "just concentrate on Earth, and you'll get there just fine." she called. The door slid shut and Jade could be heard muttering "I never did like matter transporter machines!"

The tower rose from the top of the command tower and the top unfolded like a metal-petaled flower. A beam of light shot out, and the group felt themselves being sucked into the vortex of light and howling wind.

Driveby waited till the lighjt had faded and the door to the transporter slid open again. "I hope they made it." she muttered under her vocoder. Then she turned and switched on her comm. "All right, out mission objective has been achieved. All troups pull back." she looked to the two vehicles present. "Split up, and regroup at staging point one. Driveby out." she turned off her comm and transformed, zooming out of the complex followed closely by Sheique who took to the air to swoop down then dissapear with the other seekers. Driveby quickly evaded the drones except one who followed her and had to swerve so it's weaponfire didn't hit her tiore. "Cable!" she commed. "I'm working on it boss!"

"Working on it is not good enough."

"hang on... got it!" the drone dropped like a rock, flailed for a moment, then went still. The other drones dropped out of the air of fell where they stood. The white and pink car gave a sound of relief. She made a right-angle turn and went around a building, heading for the building where they had extablished a base before heading to Shockwave's tower, hoping the other Marauder teams had made it there as well.


	13. Chapter 13

Meanwhile, on Earth, Starscream paced in front of the spacebridge, trying desperately to decide whether to tell Megatron about the unidentified mechs who had hijacked the spacebridge under his watch. If anything happened on Cybertron, he knew he would be blamed for it, because he was left to gaurd the spacebridge. On the other hand, if he went and told Megatron about what had happened, it would be the same as slashing his own fuel lines. Though, he thought, there was the offhanded possibility that Megatron be more merciful with him if he went to the decepticon leader of his own free will. "Yeah, right." he thought. "When has Megatron ever shown me mercy if I admit my own fault. Hah! for that matter, when have I ever admitted anything is my own fault or taken the blame for anything!" he thought angrily, kicking at another rock. He looked up and practically groaned. "Oh, as if things aren't bad enough." he muttered. The dust cloud from the approaching Autobots was clearly visible.

Highroad transformed, the Lamborginis and Ironhide pulling up behind him. He grinned behind his facemask. This was going to be too easy. "Starscream." he greeted. The red and blue seeker's optics widened slightly. "Whattyou want, Auto-boob!" Rumble declared from slightly behind him. Trailbreaker took a step forward, but HighRoad merely glanced at the Autobot over his shoulder. "I take it Megatron left the spacebridge in your capable hands?" there was a tone of amusement in the Autobot leader's optics. Starscream practically snarled, bristling visibly. "Why don't you go terrorize some poor human or... or go haul a load of oranges to a market somewhere!" the seeker spat back. HighRoad raised a single optic ridge. He wasn't going to reply with the response he wanted to use, or Starscream would know he wasn't really Prime.

Rumble seemed somewhat amused by Starscream's ruffling, though. "Oh yeah, just wait till Megatron gets here!" He sounded smug. "Oh yeah, and who says there'll be anything left of you when he gets here?" High Road pulled out his rifle. Starscream took the hint and left into the air, leaving Rumble wondering how he got into the sky so fast. "Hey! come back here, ya tin-foil plated coward!" he yelled, firing off a couple shots at the Autobots before doing a double take to look at the spacebridge, then at the Autobots, then back at the spacebridge again, then took off. "Megatron is not gonna be happy about this!" he yelled at Starscream on the way up.

"Who cares!" came the raspy reply. HighRoad just watched him go before turning to his group. "Well, that was easy." He noted. "Yeah," trailbreaker stepped forward. "But don't you think we should do something about the pile of junk they left behind?" he motioned to the spacebridge.

Ironhide walked up beside the mimic. "Especially if Megatron is on his way here. We should probly destroy this thing before he gets here." he suggested. "Agreed." HighRoad nodded, and Trailbreaker and the twins started to set explosive charges around the metal structure.

"Lookout!" sunstreaker yelled. Unfortunately, Megatron HAD arrived faster than anticipated, and fired off a blast from his fusion cannon at the Prime Mimic's feet before he could fire his gun at the Spacebridge. "Decepticons!" Trailbreaker yelled, turning on his forcefield. HighRoad swore under his breath and went for cover. Sunstreaker and sideswipe fired at Thundercracker and Skywarp, and Soundwave narrowly missed Ironhide. Prowl didn't get the chance to say "I told you so" as he, Smokescreen, and Bluestreak pulled up. The young gunner ducked behind some rocks and fired off a couple shots at Soundwave. The casette player dispatched Buzzsaw and Laserbeak, and Bluestreak tried to shoot at them, missing. The two birdlike casetticons kept their distance, but fired at the Datsun, hoiping to hit him between the two of them.

Prowl looked up and squinted. Ah, so Starscream *had* returned. And from the look Megatron sent him, he was NOT thrilled at. all. He fired off a shot, hitting Starscream's wing and got a cross between a shriek and a snarl in reply for it. High Road faced off with Megatron. "Give it up Megatron, the spacebridge is ours." highroad declared, shifting to the left as Megatron swung a powerfull right hook. HighRoad ducked, and Megatron Missed him completely. the Prime lookalike was suprised Megatron hadn't swung hard enough to swing himself all the way around when he missed. But instead megatron trurned so his side wasfacing HighRoad, and he settled for grabbing the Decepticon leader from behind and gave him a shove. "The spacebridge is ours, Prime! there's nothing you can do to stop us!" Megatron fired at the almost-Autobot leader and instead hit a rock to one side.

The clear whine and rush of darkening air signaled the reopening of the spacebridge, and Megatron turned to glance at it. "What! I had no travellers on cybertron!" Prime glanced at it also. But something had come through. The blinding beam of light was fading, leaving only the acrid smell of burnt ions in the surrounding atmosphere.

Jade glanced at Bullet as the spacebridge activated, then offlined her optics, concentrating on the spacebridge on Earth. She had heard about spacebridge accidents, and frankly, it almost terrified her to have to travel like this. A mere blink of an optic later, the blue sky of Earth was around them, and she looked around. She glanced at Bullet almost questioningly. "Well, that was fast." he noted. "Yeah, but let's just get back to base before the decepticons realise we've arrived." she said, thankful for the peace and quiet of Earth. Then the door slid open, and a laserblast struck the ground at her feet. The femmejet "eep!"ed really loud and leapt into the air backward, trying with every fiber of her chassis not to hide behind Bullet.

Thankfully, Optimus Prime chose that moment to deck Megatron, and Jade nudged Bullet. "Let's go!" she leapt into the air, and swooped down lower to fly close to the ground and keep a small outcropping of rocks between them and the Decepticons. Jade snarled as a grey and red robot with doorwings popped up to shoot at her. Jade hissed as the shot hit her wing. It hurt! "My wing! You'll pay for that!" she snarled, realising only too late that her voice still sounded like Starscream.

Windstriker swooped down, transforming behind Bluestreak, who was the grey and red mech who'd shot Jade in the wing. "Jade, quit playing around and let's go!" she called. "Oh yeah, you try getting out of this wihtout getting shot to peices!" the jet declared. Bluestreak blinked. The new mechs knew the Decepticons?" Bullet looked around and saw that Prime and Megatron had fistfought their way behind some bushes, and were totally unseeable to either group of fighting mechs. "Jade, go. I'll catch up." he called. Backdraft took to the air "Don't have to tell me twice." he shot off into the sky. Jade glared after him. "You'd better be carefull. Scythe will have my afterburners if you get yourself scrapped!" she snarked, taking to the air.

Bullet watched her go, then grinned. He flew to the opposite end of the battlefield. "Decepticons, retreat! the spacebridge is a lost cause!" he called. From behind the bushes, Megatron heard and tried to get up and run back to where his troiups were being led away by an imposter! But Prime grabbed his ankle. "Oh no you don't!" Megatron snarled and kicked the Autobot leader in the face. HighRoad, who Mewgatron (and everyone else, apparently) thought was Prime, let go.

Ironhide fired at Bullet "So those new mechs ARE workin' with the Deceptercons!" he fired a few morte shots. But Bullet was faster than his Decepticon counterpart, and chose his route wisely. He had allready led the Decepticons out of sight of the main battlefield and the spacebridge before landing in a small crevasse in the rocks hidden by the unergrowth. He watched them fly past with a smirk. "Scratch one battle, and a spacebridge." he said to himself.

Once they had gone, he took off again, heading back to the Kintaari mountainbase.


	14. Chapter 14

Once inside the base, Jade glanced at Backdraft, who was standing in front of the main console. "We have to go help Bullet." she stated, giving Backdraft a meaningful look. Mic looked up from his computer console. "Oh, why?" he went back to typing. "Because, he's out there all alone. He was leading the Decepticons away from the spacebridge. That's why." she replied. "You're the one who left him out there on his own, you go help him." the white camaro mech replied, in an uninterested tone. Backdraft glanced at her, and the femme shivered slightly. As if he was imagining all the dark and painful things he could do to her. She didn't like it, and instead glanced at Scythe as the green mech walked in. "Scythe, please. We need to go help Bullet. He's out there, and I don't know if he's still with the Decepticons, fightiong them, hiding out, or where he is." she said.

The green mech held up a hand, and gave her a look that said "calm down." "Where did you see him last?" he asked, tone calm. "It was... he was leading the Decepticons away from the spacebridge, so I could get away. And Backdraft, too." she shot the darkly-colored seeker a look. He gave it right back. "I didn't need help from anyone. I got away just fine." he said, as though offended anyone would _accuse_ him of requiring their help. "If you want tyo help him so bad, feel free to fly ouyt there. You're the one who left him there." he refolded his arms. "That's what I told her." mic muttered from behind his console. Jade glared at him, but he didn't see it. "Please, Backdraft? We could really use your expertise as a flier. And you are part of this team, right?" Jade asked. "I don't have to do anything, and you don't tell me what to do, femme." he replied darkly. Scythe held up a hand, giving Jade a look for stating it so rudely. "Please. We could use your help. And, Bullet is one of the two people who rescued you, after all." he said.

Backdraft stalked over to him, standing slightly taller (by about two inches) than the dragon transformer. "I don't owe your little... troupe anything." he cast a glance at Jade again, and narrowed his optics, visible in their close proximity, at Scythe. "I could have waited a few hundred more years to be rescued by my people, I didn't ask for your help. So don't go assuming things about me." he stalked towards the door, only to find Razer and Dusk standing there. "They did rescue you, and there is no denying you owe the seeker and the Megatron- pretender your life." Razer stated. Backdraft growled softly under his breath. "What, do you deny that without their help you would not be here? that... we would not have you back, old friend?" the reddish-brown and black flier tilted his head. Backdraft sighed. He hated it when his trinemates did that to him. "Oh allrighht. I'll get the computer to find him." he snarked, jabbing a cpouple buttons on the console. "There, see?" he poked a thick finger at the viewscreen. It showed a silvery colored mech flying towards the base. "No sign of the Decepticons, or the autobots." he folded his arms and spared Scythe a sidelong glance. "Happy?"

scythe ducked his head in a type of bow. "Yes, thank you." he activated his comm. "Bullet, this is scythe, please respond." after a long moment, the silver mech onscreen raised a hand to his helmet. "Bullet here, are Jade and the new guy back at base yet?" Backdraft bristled at the comment. "My name is not "new guy." he grated. Dusk walked up, and placed a hand on his shoulder. He glared at the appendage, and removed it, giving the jet a somewhat hurt look. "Yes, they are here and they are unharmed. What is your status?" scythe asked. "I'm perfectly fine, thanks. I gave the Decepticons the slip about ten miles back. I'm on my way back to base right now."

"Roger, Syus out." the dragon closed the comm line and turned to the others. "Bullet will be back soon. Perthaps we should get everyone together for a meeting and exchange information." he suggested. Razer nodded. "And if I may," Jade put in, still with Starscream's voice "I'd like to get my original paint joba back, and my voice also. It's just a little annoying sounding like that whiny, screechy, snarky little seeker brat Starscream." she folded her arms. "You're telling me." Mic mutterred. Jade shot him a sarcastic "Seriously?" look. He shrugged, as though silently saying "What? I'm just saying." Jade rolled her optics and shook her head slightly, like she was replying "Whatever." Backdraft perked an optic ridge. "Do they all do that?" he asked Razer, who shrugged silently, as though saying "I don't know. Backdraft snorted in disgust and headed for the door to the rest of the base "Whatever. I'm getting refueled and cleaned up. Call me when the boy scouts want to have a meeting." he jerked a thumb towards Scythe, then was gone.

"Wow." Jade breathed after he had dissapeared. "Is he allways like that?" she asked. Razer simply nodded. "Hm." the femme looked towards the door he had dissapeared through. Then blinked as it opened to reveal a stunned-looking little black car. Gobee walked in with s tunned look, round optics, and rather shaky. "Ah, I see you've met our newest addition, Backdraft." Scythe said, amusement coloring his tone. Jade snickered. Dusk turned away with a smile. "Come on Jade, let's get you back to being you." She led the starscream-lookalike out of the room, leaving Razer, Scythe, Mic, and Gobee.

A few minutes later, Bullet landed, glancing around quickly before he put his hand flat against the sensor panel, which looked like any ordinary rock. The chime sounded inside the base, and Razer pressed a button on the console. The door slid open, and the silver Megatron mimic walked in. He looked around the darkened corridor which led to the base, wondering if anyone ever took the notion to lurk up there in the darkness. He shruggede it off, even though he felt like he was being watched. A tiny security camera swiveled to follow his movement. Inside the base, Razer opened the inner door, resetting the security camera that had been spying on Bullet. Scythe turned to greet him. "Welcome back." he nodded. Backdraft mumbled from one side and dissapeared into the edges of the room, which were masked by the darkness. THe Dragon wondered when he had reappeared, and if he had ever left at all. He shrugged it off.

Bullet watched him go, then after a minute asked "Did Jade make it back okay?" Scythe nodded. "Yes, she is with Dusk." The silver mech nodded. "Good." then after a moment added "I should probably go get my colors put back the way they're suppoed to look." he looked sown at his sidepanels, which were Megatron-red intead of bullet-blue. "And get my canon put back in it's right place." he looked at his arm where the armcannon was supposed to be. Instead, it was on the other arm, identical to Megatron. The cavern door swished open, and Jade, Dusk, Windstriker, and Wyldkat walked through. Winstriker grinned. "Back to normal. Although..." the purple a-10 Thunderbolt have Jade a considering look. "Normalcy *is* relative, especially for you." she snickered. "Hah ha. Byte me." Jade deadpanned, pretending not to be amused.

"Now, now, ladies." Wyldkat chirped from behind them "We should be thankful we're back at base in one peice." the steel-blue carfemme smiled. "Agreed." Dusk sounded honestly thankful for their safety. She glanced around. "Say, where is Backdraft?" she asked. Needle popped up from behind the computer. "Got the satellite link totally fixed." he wiped off his hands. "And he went thattaway." he pointed towards the shadows. "Tattletail." Gobbe remarked huffily. He actually preferred the black and orange seeker to be nowhere any of them could see him. Or be the target of his snarky comments or glares. Dusk followed his gaze, and Backdraft reappeared from the shadows. "You called?" He glanced at Gobee who took an involuntary step backwards. Scythe looked at the assembled groups. "Is everyone present?" he said. Bullet did a mental headcount. Scythe, Himself, Razer, Dusk, Backdraft, Mic, Needle, Gobee, windstriker, Jade, and Wyldkay. "Yup, we're all here." he said. Scythe nodded and walked over to the computer.

"Good, then we can start. First off..." he pressed a button, bringing up an image of the Transmognifier, only an image created from a bunch of lines rather than an actual image. "This is the device that brought us to this dimension..." he started. "I don't believe it." Backdraft said under his breath, tone amazed. He thought the deivce had been lost millenia age. Scythe looked over his shoulder at the seeker. "I presume you know something about this device and it's function?" he asked. "Well, I..." Backdraft walked over next to where the green dragon-former was standing. "I don't know much, but that," he pointed to the device, "is almost a, how would your people put it, a ledgend?" he looked at the image. "It was supposedly lost millenia ago, on Cybertron. But how did it find it's way here?" hgew looked over at Scythe. The green dragon ruffled his wings slightly. That jet's gaze was cold. "I don't know, I was hoping you could tell us." He looked back at the f-18. Backdraft's optic roidges went up. "Me? why, I don't know anything about that device."

"That's not what Razer and Dusk told us." scythe said, deciding to state it nicely before anyone else on his team could say it any ruder. "They did?" backdraft looked at Dusk and Raqzer, then back at Scythe. "I'm sorry to dissapoint you, but I don't know anything about the device, aside from that it can turn Transformers into fleshies, and vice versa." he shrugged. Scythe nodded. "We know that."

"Yeah, from experience." Windstriker put in from the edge of the lighted area. The femmejet was leaning against a rock outcropping. Backdraft glanced at her, then turned and looked. "Really?" his tone was disbelieving, slightly amazed, even. He looked at the assembled group. "you mean, you all are... squishies?" he asked. Mic snorted. "We prefer to be called humans." Backdraft nodded. "My apologies. Hue-manns." Winstriker rolled her optics to look at Jade who silently shushed her. The seeker was trying to get her purple friend not to make Star Trek references (aloud, at least) about how other species's pronounced the word. She leaned over so Winstriker could lean over to her and whisper "He says it like a ferengi."

"Shh!" Jade shushed. Scythe heard and turned. "You have something to add?"

"No, nope." both femmes said almost at the same time. "Nothing to add." Jade shook her head and Winstriker pretended to be comtemplating the ceiling rocks.

Scythe regaurded them both for a second, then turned back to Backdraft. "We were under the impression." he flicked a glance to Dusk in the background "That you had knowledge on how the device works, and that you could help us return to our home-dimension." he said evenly. Backdraft spread his hands, as though powerless. "I'm sorry, but I don't have that information. I wish I did, it would be a great place to hide out from the Decepticons." In the background Jade muffled a moan. _"No wonder the device had been hidden"_, she thought.

Bullet stood up and silently walked out. The look on his face said what everyone was thinking. They had been had,. Tricked into rescuing someone who wasn't able to help them, just someone Razer and Dusk wanted back, and the group had been their pawn the entire time, rescuing their "friend" for the fliers. Heaven only knew if this guy was a crimnal or something. They had been used. Mic stood, practiucally snarling. "You mean to tell me..." he pointed this near-shout at Razer "That you sent them to Cybertron to rescue one of your friends just because you wanted him rescued! I'll bet you knew the entire time he had no knowledge on how to get us back home, Didn't you!"

"Mic, calm down." Scythe held up a hand, but the white camaro continued, stalking forward as he ranted. "You used us to play your little... your henchmen! Your little pawns! You wanted someone to break into.. whats-his-name's prison and rescue one of your friends, and you just had to find just the right the SUCKERS to do it for you!"

Razer said nothing, but his visage darkened. "We had no idea Backdraft didn't know. We honestly though he knew about the function and capabilities of the device-"

"Liar!" Mic practically roared.

"Enough." Scythe got between them, mere inches from his friend. If the camaro mech wanted to attack Razerr or Dusk, he would have to attack the dragon-bot first. "It doesn't matter, mic. We will find our way home. With or without them." he paused, waiting for Mic's anger to subside. But the camaro still glared daggers at the darkly colored flier, and also cast his death-glare at Backdraft, who's face was blank. He didn't seem angry or threatened by the camaro's ire. "I'm sorry." Razer amended. "For what it is worth, Our third trine member was studying the device for a time. We were under the impression he knew what it could do." he cast his optics to the floor. We shall do everything in our power to help you return home."

Mic glared for a minute longer, then spat "Whatever." and stalked through the door.

Wyldkat started to follow, but Scythe stopped her. "No, let him go cool off. He needs time to mull this over." he glanced at Razer and Backdraft, who were nearly side by side, and then looked back at his group. "We need to start finding another way to reopen that doorway from this world to our own." he stated.

"If I may." Dusk voiced softly from the side. "Um, Razer and I were once scientists, perhaps we can use the base's computer to figure out what the energy readings were, and how this... vortes, you called it? how this anomoly was created, and find a way to make another one to return you to your home." Scythe nodded. "That would be best." he simply said. He let his offended tone say anything else that needed said for him. Jade watched the exchange from next to Gobee, heads going back and forth like they were watching a game of ping pong. Scythe walked out, and Needle was whispering to Windstriker aboout something. Neither of them seemed to happy about this new development, either.

End Notes:

Sorry, I seem to have lost the previous version of the end notes, oops. Anyway, here's my notes. I just wanted to say that 1: this wasn't quite the scene I had picked out from my headspace.

2. Mic is becoming less like the friend I modeled him after and more like a fictional character (what I want him to be), and I wanted to say that cause I don't want to insult my friend. Mic is way way WAY different. Wow. Just... I honestly don't know what happenned there. lol.

3. I can't find the fic the arguing scene was supposed to be based off of. It was a fiction snippet, written for the fanchar100 prompt "Blame". I can't find the hard copy (notebook paper copy) either. That's just wierd. It's really really short, though. So it shouldn't be that much trouble to retype. I just don't remember exactly how the scene went at all. darn. Oh well.

4. Wow, the team's first fight. Wouldya lookee there! This scene was very hard to write, though. I wanted to have everyone talking and arguing all at once, but my Mic-muse wouldn't go for it. The chara has enough ammo as it was, and I tend to write following my muses rather than a plotted storyline. So writing this is somewhat of an adventure and discovery, as it is for the readers.

5. I need a beta-reader. Slaggit all. I'm tired of missing stuff, then going back and discovering mistakes while reading, even when I give the finished fic a once-over before posting it. I just get so eager to get it up so people can read it. But since nobody has read this fic, and it looks like nobody is interested, I guess I have time.

Well, I need to go gather some bunnies for the next chapter.

You will also see peices of fanchar100 fiction "Down to Earth" and "Walking on a Wire" later. *grin*. My humor-bunnies pop up out of nowhere sometimes. I might have parts of "sunrise" in there as well. I'll probably rewrite them so I can count them towards my total wordcount. Heh.

Questions, comments, and reviews welcomed! Flames will be used to fry random Decepticons on an open spit. :-p


	15. Chapter 15

wow, it's been how long since I've updated this?

Well, I was reorganizing my fiction folder on my computer and discovered several new chapters to this.

err... if anyone is even reading this.

Anywat, here you go. Reviews are much appreciated. Thanks.

o0o0o0o0

HighRoad tried to ignore the looks he got from the Autobots as he plodded back to Prime's office. I may have just been his imagination, perhaps he was imagining the glares he'd gotten? He shook the thought out of his head as he keyed in the access code. He glanced over his shoulder to see Prowl following him on one side, and Ironhide on the other. The door slid open and he looked up from the floortiles, talking half a step back in suprise.

Optimus Prime glanced up from the datapad he was reading. "HighRoad." he greeted. "Was there something you needed to discuss with me so bad you used my own acces code to get in?"

"Uh, uh, er, I, um, sir, ah" Highroad stumbled around to try to find the words. But Prowl cut in with. "We had not realised you had returned, sir." Prime nodded, looking to ironhide. "Hagh-rowd stopped the cons from usin their newest spacebridge. We kicked their butts raght." he declared in that southern drawl of his. The rust-colored mech clapped a hand on the Prime-mimic's shoulder, making HighRoad jump. "Hagh-rowd here is good leader, that's fer shore." Prime's optics twinkled at the declaration, he was smiling behind that face mask of his. "Is this true, Highroad?" he tried to make his voice sound serious, instead of amused like it was. It was funny because the "good leader", as Ironhide had put it, currently looked like the proverbial deer in th headlights. "Yessir, I mean I went, we went, we found... the cons were..." he swallowed.

Prowl now stepped in with "As much as I am against letting your "twin" here run things around the base while you are gone, he did indeed find and stop the Decepticons from using their newest spacebridge." he nodded. "We also discovered some new information about the new group of mechs." he glanced at HighRoad before continuing. "We have reason to believe they are working with the Decepticons." the two mechs gently pushed HighRoad into Prime's office so the door could shut behind them, giving them a little more privacy.

Prime looked suprised at this. "Are you sure they are working with the Decepticons? and what happened to the spacebridge after the Deceptiucons left it?" he asked.

"Well," HighRoad started. "I think Megatron and Starscream were on Cybertron because they came back through the spacebridge with another mech, but the other mech, a seeker of some kind, was wearing a different symbol that wasn't the Decepticon symbol. And we blew up the spacebridge after they left." Prime simply nodded. "I will be expecting a full report of the event while I was gone." he looked at Prowl and Ironhide. "From all three of you." a chorus of "Yes Sir" was his reply. Prime stood and nodded to them. "Dismissed." They walked out, and Prime thought for a second. If this new group were Decepticons, why had one of them risked his life to rescue Spike? perhaps their allegiance had changed since they got here. He was certain they were going to find out just what was going on.

HighRoad glanced around then answered his beeping comm. "HighRoad here." he answered. "It's me, Kat, come meet me outside." HighRoad's optics widened slightly. She hadn't been at the battle, but what if the Autobots thought she was a Decepticon? he hurried outside and looked around, but no sign of her. "Where are you?" he asked into his comm. The little blue four-door car zoomed around some rock to stop a few meters away from him. "I'm right here." she said. HighRoad switched off his comm and walked over.

"What're you doing here? did you know the Autobots all think you're a Decepticon now?" he asked, stress lacing his voice. "I know." the blue car swaid, voice serious. "That's what I came to talk to you about." HighRoad sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "Come on, get in." Wyldkat popped a door open. HighRoad glanced around. "No, not out here. If I change, the Decepticons could see." he glanced over his shoulder at the mountain. "Not to mention the He looked back at his friend. "Gotchya." Wyldkat shut her door and started to drive towards the woods at the back of the mountain. HighRoad followed and Transformed.

Meanwhile, inside the Ark's security office, Red Alert narrowed his optics at the viewscreen. Something was going on, and he didn't like it. He brought up the external security camera controls and followed the pait until they were out of sight over the nearby ridge. Then huffed. "something is going on, and I'm going to find out." he promised the now-empty screen.

Wyldkat and HighRoad reached where the landscape sloped downward slightly into the bowl of an old lake bed before the forest, and Wyldkat stopped, transforming. HighRoad did so as well. The blue car glanced back at the mountain and walked down into the bowl. "I think it's safe to talk here." she said. HigRoad sat down on a nearby rock. "Kat, what's going on? who are those people, and why are you back? I thought you'd had enough of the fighting." he asked. The blue car glanced over at him, then down at her clasped hands. "What can I say, I missed you. And they're not really Decepticons." She looked up at the sky just in time to catch a glimpse of something metallic reflecting the sunlight. "I can't stay and talk. I gave Prime some information on my new friends." she stood. "I think one of them just flew over." she glanced at where she had seen the sparkle of light.

"Look, I can tell you this," she walked over and took his hands in his. "They're neutrals, not Decepticons. I'm trying to work out a way to get them to come to us, but they're not very trusting. If the Autobots went driving over to their base, they'd probably try to attack them." She shook her head as he stood, pulling her into an embrace. "Wyldkat, you know you can trust me." That was all he could find to say. Both of them knew their bond ran deeper than that. She had been his car, his first car. Brought back from the junkyard, quite literally before they both became Transformers. He had talked to that car long before she could ever hear him. Ranted into ther dashboard, cried into her steering wheel. He had spent ever last dime he had trying to fix problems with that car. She was no ordinary car. She was *his* car.

"I know." she smiled, leaning into his embrace. "And I know, I can tell you anything." she pulled away. "But this time, you have to trust me, okay?" he smiled, caressing the side of her face. His most trusted companion. He could do that, trust her, as she allways trusted him. He nodded. "Allright." his optics widened slightly as he jokingly added "Just don't get into any more trouble, okay?" Wyldkat chuckled. "Oh, I won't, you know me." she blinked one optic to wink at him playfully. "Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of." he laughed. She giggled too, and transformed, driving away. He commed her as she started to drive away. "By the way, it's good to have you back. I've missed you." he said. "I missed you too. See you later, HighRoad." she ened the conversation, and headed for home.

Meanwhile, Scythe stood at the base's main computer, watching the viewscreen thoughtfully. His emotions flickered from "This is going better than I had hoped" to "What was she thinking", and more than a little suprise when he saw the Autobot leader caress her face like that. "What is going on, I wonder?" he asked himself softly. The sound of a car's engine interrupted his thoughts, though. "Ah, Wyldkat." he turned. "Mind telling me what's going on?" he asked, noticing how she almost imperceptively tensed. He motioned to the monitor. "I, ahm, I was just talkign to the Autobot leader." she shrugged. "Really?" Scythe tilted his head. He was almost tempted to show the video of her exchanging "pleasantries" with the Autobot leader, just to see her reaction, but decided to save it. He would hear her story first, to see if it differed from what he had seen.

"We were just..." Wyldkat sighed and glanced around. She didn't want the fliers to hear this. Razer and Dusk would not doubt be *very* displeased to hear this. And Backdraft... She didn't even want to think about him. "Look, we're... kind of good friends. I didn't tell you before, because I didn't want you to ask me what information I have on the Autobots and try to use it against them." she took a few steps to the right, turned, took three steps to the left. Scythe simply watched.

"They're.. good mechs, they're just trying to defend the Earth from the Decepticons." she looked at him. "And how do you know this?" he folded his arms. "Well, I was kind of... I've been there a couple of times when they've gone to stop the Decepticons, and I've seen them..." she paused "I've seen them run into a collapsing building to save humans, even when the Decepticons are allready chased away. I've seen them stay after a fight to help put out fires and make sure everyone is okay, even clean up their messes they've made, or the Decepticons have made after a fight." she started pacing again. "I just... I don't know." she shrugged, "I don't have any real information, like access codes or anything that could help you, I mean, if you really did want to sneak into their base." she shrugged again.

Scythe shifted his weight. "Are you telling them about us?"

She looked at him, then shook her head. "No. They don't know who the group is, or where we're from." Scythe nodded. "Wyldkat," he walked up "Are you on their side? do you want to help them capture or otherwise subjegate us?" She stopped pacing. "No, of sourse not!" the blue car looked suprised, even mildly offended. Scythe simply nodded, face still a blank mask devoid of emotion. "Why are you flirting with the Autobot leader?"

Mild sputtering followed. "Whu-what?" Wyldkat looked at the motior screen. "Oh, he saw" she thought. "We were... he was concerned for my well-being." she said, almost flatly. "I see." Scythe walked over and turned the monitor off. "That is all. I will speak with you again later." He stood in front of the computer, rms folded. "Oh, okay. Later then." Wyldkat walked out, and headed for the barracks. She breathed a proverbial sigh of relief. She might have managed to get out of that one, but she had a feeling things weren't going to get much easier. She wished they had never met Razer and Dusk. Things would be easier. She would be able to introduce her group to HighRoad and possibly...

"Waitaminute!" she stopped dead in her tracks. HighRoad had been the first one to enter this dimension. Maybe he knew how they could get home? she hadn't seen many of he other Revolutions, HighRoad's team. "Nah." she continued walking. They were probably out on patrol or something. She rubbed a hand over her face wearily. Maybe in the future she would meet with HighRoad again and ask him, but she couldn't so that anytime soon. She knew the fliers would be watching. Or the base's spy camera, a satellite surveilance system which could see anywhere within several hundred miles. She guess (or hoped, rather), that it was the flash she had seen, the satellite being launched.


	16. Chapter 16

When HighRoad walked back into the Ark's control room, he barely noticed Red Alert, until the security director spoke from behind him. "So, what were you doing meeting with the enemy?" he asked accusingly. HighRoad whirled. "Red Alert, you startled me."

"You still haven't answered my question. What were you doing secretly meeting with a group of mechs who are working with the Decepticons, hmm?" the ferarri narrowed his optics at the Optimus Prime mimic. "Red Alert, you know I'm not a spy. You know my record. You've seen me the entire time I've been here, my entire team has been here."

"So? that doesn't mean you're not a traitor. Or a spy." the security director folded his arms. HighRoad resisted the urge to roll his optics. "I'm not a spy or a traitor, Red Alert. Why would you even think that? I would never betray the Autobots."

Red alert still seemed suspicious, though. "Yes, well, your record may be spotless, but I still don't trust you or any of the Autobots." HighRoad raised an optic ridge. "You may look like Optimus Prime, but that does not mean you are him." Red Alert waved his arms to emphasise his point. "I don't trust any autobot! not even Optimus Prime!" HighRoad tilted his head and looked over the mech's shoulder. Prime walked past them.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Prime remarked, giving HighRoad a glance. That startled Red Alert, who stammerred. "Uh, Optimus Prime sir! I, Uh, we were just..." he glanced at HighRoad and got over the small shock. "I was just asking Highroad why he was spotted cohorting with the enemy." He gave the prime mimic an accusatory stare.

"Now, Red Alert, I doubt HighRoad was doing that. And even if he was, we have no proof that those new mechs are Decepticons."

"But-But, We saw them! they were building a new spacebridge! HighRoad was even there! He knows they were working with the Decepticons! You know what they are up to, don't you!" Red Alert pointed a finger at the mimic.

"Now, Red Alert." Prime put up a hand to make him stop. His rather neurotic Security director was going to give him a processor-ache at this rate.

"But I-" Prime cut him off "Please."

"But He-"

"Red."

Red Alert relented, practically pouting. Prime folded his arms and assumed his most "leadery" pose. "HighRoad and I will discuss this in my office immediately. You have no reason to believe was or is any wrongdoing on HighRoad's part. We will get to the bottom of this." Prime gave HighRoad a look to follow and made for a hasty retreat. Red Alert simply glared after them. "I'm keeping my optic on you, _Pretender!_ he spat after HighRoad.

Once they were down the hall, HighRoad huffed and remarked "Pretender. He sounds like he's been talking to Prowl. That's what Ihe/I calls me." he meant it half-jokingly, of course. Prime made a sound. "Yes, but Prowl has much more faith on your capabilities as interrim leader." He gave his mimic a glance. "He probably believes in you more than a lot of the mechs in the Ark. He just doesn't show it."

"Really?" HighRoad knew that was a stupid question. Prime nodded. "You should have heard his report." he keyed in the code to his office and motioned for HighRoad to go first.

The crimson and Navy blue mimic took the seat in front of Prime's desk, and rubbed a hand across his temples. Prime took the other seat behind it, and moved aside some datapads. "I know how you feel." he remarked, in a humored tone. "He's almost too much to handle sometimes."

HighRoad chortled. "You don't say." he half-chuckled. Then in a "tired of it" serious tone, added "I don't know." he looked up. Prime was waiting for him to finish what he was saying. Or give an explanation why he was meeting one of the group's members out behind the Ark. "I wasn't meeting with one of their group's members, I mean, I was, but she's not a Decepticon..." he paused, then tried again. "It was Wyldkat."

"Wyldkat?" prime looked mildly suprised. "I thought you said Wyldkat had returned to your home-dimension." he leaned forward slightly. You don't suppose these people... that they're really... from your home world?"

HighRoad shook his head. "No, I don't think so. But Wyldkat, she's somehow gotten into their group." he leaned back in his chair. "I was meeting with her to find out what's really going on, who they are, where they're from." Prime nodded, HighRoad continued. "She said they're neutrals, but didn't say where they're from." he shrugged. "She didn't tell me a lot. Just that they're not Decepticons, and she's trying to get them to come over to our side, but they're not friendly. No, that's not the word. Careful? Thy're just not.. very trusting is all, Prime. You have to trust her. She knows what she's doing. Wyldkat would never betray me. She'd never betray the Autobots."

Prime nodded, sitting upright. "I see." He looked through his datapads, picked one out, and held it out to him. "This is the information you got last time?" HighRoad looked it over and nodded. "Yeah, that's it." he handed it back. Prime set it down. "You know I trust you HighRoad." His tone was honest. "And I trust your team, but please tell your operative to be careful. These new mechs may be more dangerous than they appear to be."

he stood, so did HighRoad. "And, perhaps it might be best if you avoid Red Alert for a while. "His optics got that twinkle in them again at the Security Director's mention. "Yes sir, I will." HighRoad saluted, and walked out.

Prime waited till the door slid closed after him and sat back down, reading over the datapad. "Hmm, interesting."


	17. Chapter 17

Wyldkat plodded to the base's washracks. They were lucky Razer and Dusk had constructed the base close to a nearby river. They had installed a set of turbines, which provided electricity for the entire base thanks to the river, and also had a purification system, much more advanced than the humans' methods, to use the water for the washracks. They even had a heating unit for the water, so nobody would have to endure a cold shower. The carfemme was thankfull one of the two fliers (Dusk, probably), had thought of heating the water.

She got out one of the containers of soap and headed to one of the stalls. Speaking of the flier femme... Wyldkat thought she had heard the sound of water running. "Is somebody in here?" she said over the metal divider.

"Just me." the sound of Dusk's voice echoed in the steam-filled room. "Ah, I thought I heard someone." Wyldkat leaned out of her stall just as Dusk did hers. The femme was covered in soot black-colored smears from head to toe. Wyldkat blinked. "Wow, what happened to you?" Dusk turned the hot water up, making steam roll out from her shower stall as thick as smoke. "I was out procuring charcoal and other carbonic materials for the base's water filtration system.

"Huh." Wylkdat turned on her own water. "I didn't know that's what's used for filtering water."

Dusk's light laugh sounded. "Cybertronians have more advanced methods for filtration and purification, but using charcoal, and other similar carbon-materials is a trick we picked up from the humans. They're not as stupid as eveyone may think." she said.

"Hmpf. Nice to know I'm not alone on thinking that." Wyldkat muttered, grabbing the washrag and pouring some soap on it. Dusk laughed again. "You should have seen Razor's face when I researched the human worldwide bulletin board for information, and told him that the stuff they make regular faucet filters out of comes from cocunut shells."

Wyldkat gave the wall of her stall a "you're crazy" look. "You're kidding, right?"

"nope."

"Huh." the blue carfemme started rinsing off. Nothing could take off stress like a nice, warm shower.

"Although, most of the time, we can procure the materials needed and alter them for our own uses. The charcoal itself has to be infused with certain other elements, which are also rare on this planet, however their is a small vein of something called silver running through this mountain. I'm just glad we only need a few micrograms to infuse the charcoal with." the flier femme switched bottles and started applying a fine coating of wax.

"nanosilver infused charcoal is another thing the humans use for their water. Kills all kinds of bacteria and stuff." she shrugged. "I wouldn't normally worry about such a thing, but one can never be too careful on an organic planet." she stuck her head out of her stall "I heard they have over a thousand varieties of mold. Some that can grow in below-freezing temperatures, and some that don't even need light or water to grow."

She scrunched up her nose behind her faceplate. "Have you SEEN some of the mold and other micro-oganisms that grow on this planet? there's this one, called the... she searched her memory banks for it, then sent the file to Wyldkat. The femmecar wished she hadn't opened it as soon as she saw the gangly, brown and cream colored half-moon shapes. "It's called honey mushroom. It's not mold, but it's a very similar organism. They produce little microscopic things called spores that can grow ANYWHERE. BRRR!"

Wyldkat had to try not to snicker at the femme's reaction.

"Honestly, I'd rather not have some parasitic fuzz feeding off of *my* systems. ugch!"

Again, Wyldkat smothered a snicker. "I think they're called fungus."

"Yeah."

By now, Dusk sounded completely disgusted. Wyldkat simply shook her head. "Well, I for one am glad we have hot water." she smiled at Dusk as she turned the water off and walked past to grab an oversized towel. Dusk nodded as she wiped the large terrycloth square over her armor. "Thanks, I'm glad you like it." Wyldkat quickly finished washing and grabbed another oversized towel. Dusk tossed hers on the drying rack and headed for the door. "Hey Dusk?" Wyldkat called after her.

"Hmm?"

"You think we'll ever be able to get home?" Dusk thought for a second. "well, the Device is capable of a great many things. If It can turn Transformers into humans and vice-versa, and it brought you here, it should very well be able to send you back home." she shrugged. "I think it's more of an issue of figuring out how the Transmognifier functions rather than whether it does or not.

Once you figure out how to make it do any one things, you should be able to decipher the rest." she thought for a second, as though taking a fresh breath. "I suppose the question is not whether it work or not, but rather Ihow/I it works."

Wyldkat nodded sagely. "Yeah. I guess so." she looked at the flier femme. "You think Backdraft's information will halp any?"

"Definitely." Dusk nodded. "In fact, I'll go ask him to start compiling what information he has. Maybe your team could work with him and figure out how to make it do what you want."

"Okay." wyldkat nodded, hanging up her towel. "Thanks." Dusk nodded and walked out. Wyldkat followed, but turned left instead of right like Dusk, and headed towards the recharging area.

===============END NOTES=====

A/N: The references on charcoal and water filters came motly from /water_filters_ and the fact I have a Brita tapwater filter.

The giant fungus references are mainly from wikipedia. Although I have found other sites on it. I find it terribly amusing that Dusk is so afraid of fungi, yet Oregon is home of the "world's biggest mushroom", the a variety of honey mushroom that had Rhizomorphs which extend underground for several miles.

I think it's even funnier that this happened, since I first read about the "world's biggest mushroom" on the back of a Honey Nut Cheerios box. XD. Some varieties of the family of 'shroom that the honey mushroom belongs to glow in the dark. No kidding.

Anyway, enough rambling. More soon!


End file.
